In diretta su internet
giovedì 9 aprile ore 21,30
http://www.oistros.it/lunapiena

Ignazio Licata è un fisico teorico, professore presso l’Institute for Basic Research di Palm Harbor, Florida, Usa ed attualmente direttore scientifico dell’ISEM, Institute for Scientific Methodology a Bagheria, Palermo. Ha iniziato lavorando nel campo delle particelle e della cosmologia quantistica. Ha discusso le sue ricerche con teorici del calibro di David Bohm e J. P.Vigier.
Oltre ai numerosi contributi specialistici (www.i-sem.net) ha pubblicato: Osservando la Sfinge. La realtà virtuale della fisica quantistica, Di Renzo, Roma, 2006 e La Logica Aperta della Mente, Codice Edizioni, Torino, 2008 che hanno incontrato un notevole successo di pubblico.
A settembre dell’anno scorso ha ricevuto il Premio “Veneri di Parabita” per l’arte e la scienza che gli ha permesso di aprire un proficuo rapporto col Salento ed in particolare con le ricerche condotte dal gruppo Oistros sul tema del tarantismo.
Un Incontro nella luna piena del 9 aprile specialissimo, dunque, che prenderà le mosse da una domanda: Se tanti percorsi di conoscenza si sono risolti in circoli viziosi, possiamo continuare a pensare entro le gabbie delle discipline come ci hanno insegnato a fare, o è possibile trovare percorsi virtuosi?

Eye of the Storm aims to explore a range of controversies, from esoteric arguments between physicists over the structure of the universe, to disputes about the causes of species decline and climate change, and highly charged public controversies around the use of stem cells and the distribution of genetically modified organisms. When heated debates around the challenge of climate change have shown how abstruse uncertainties within a scientific community can be amplified and distorted to challenge the whole notion of human-caused greenhouse warming, Eye of the Storm sets out to examine the relationship between scientific uncertainty and public controversies around science.

They invite abstracts for papers and proposals for artists’ presentations and talks for Eye of the Storm that consider questions such as the following: When the whole culture and ethic of science is based on disagreement and alternative explanations, how does this essential scientific uncertainty work in the quest for knowledge? How do scientific disputes affect political decision-making and society’s relationship with science? As scientific and technological developments produce their own controversies, such as those around GM crops, what are the current critical controversies in and around science and technology? What alternative societal and cultural perspectives and contributions do artists and social scientists bring to this area? When the influential science sociologist Bruno Latour has worried that social science – in questioning the ‘reality’ that science examines – may have contributed to political abuses of science: what is the relationship between scholarship, science and politics?

Confirmed keynote speakers are Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Harvard University, and Roger Malina, astrophysicist, Director of Research at CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research), former Director at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille.

Please send 200-word abstracts for papers and presentations (20 minutes maximum) to conference@artscatalyst.org. You may attach a short biog or cv. Artists may attach images (2MB maximum)

Deadline: 31 March 2009

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The Arts Catalyst and Tate Britain announce an international call for artists, scientists, social scientists, theorists, policy-makers and other disciplines, to present in Eye of the Storm, a conference exploring scientific controversy from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Eye of the Storm aims to explore a range of controversies, from esoteric arguments between physicists over the structure of the universe, to disputes about the causes of species decline and climate change, and highly charged public controversies around the use of stem cells and the distribution of genetically modified organisms. When heated debates around the challenge of climate change have shown how abstruse uncertainties within a scientific community can be amplified and distorted to challenge the whole notion of human-caused greenhouse warming, Eye of the Storm sets out to examine the relationship between scientific uncertainty and public controversies around science.

We invite abstracts for papers and proposals for artists’ presentations and talks for Eye of the Storm that consider questions such as the following: When the whole culture and ethic of science is based on disagreement and alternative explanations, how does this essential scientific uncertainty work in the quest for knowledge? How do scientific disputes affect political decision-making and society’s relationship with science? As scientific and technological developments produce their own controversies, such as those around GM crops, what are the current critical controversies in and around science and technology? What alternative societal and cultural perspectives and contributions do artists and social scientists bring to this area? When the influential science sociologist Bruno Latour has worried that social science – in questioning the ‘reality’ that science examines – may have contributed to political abuses of science: what is the relationship between scholarship, science and politics?

Confirmed keynote speakers are Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Harvard University, and Roger Malina, astrophysicist, Director of Research at CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research), former Director at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille.

Please send 200-word abstracts for papers and presentations (20 minutes maximum) to conference@artscatalyst.org. You may attach a short biog or cv. Artists may attach images (2MB maximum)

Deadline: 31 March 2009

Singapore 25 July – 3 August 2008.

ISEA, the International Symposium on Electronic Art initiated in 1988, is the world’s premier media arts event for the critical discussion and showcase of creative productions applying new technologies in interactive and digital media. Held biannually in various cities throughout the world, this migratory event is being held in Asia for the second time in its history, after Singapore successfully secured this bid.

This symposium consists of three aspects of peer reviewed conference, internationally juried exhibition and various in-conjunction and partner events. ISEA2008 is proud to announce an Artists In Residence programme supported by the National University of Singapore that will run for the year leading up to the 2008 Symposium.

For more information on the main juried exhibition visit the AIR web page.
For more information on the conference programme visit the conference web page.

The global and unequally distributed proliferation of information, communication and experiential technologies has led to the development of a highly differentiated and structurally complicated media arts field. Even as the advent of some technologies is actively celebrated and their potential exploited by some, some others have barely come to grips with the possibilities of ‘long-obsolescent’ technologies.

Even as some struggle with the newness of certain technologies, others somewhat jaded with the determinative influence on their lives and creativity are consciously opting for “old” and “low” technologies. In such a globally differentiated situation, the very notions of “new” and “old” technologies though pandered as an issue of relative sophistication is revealed as an issue of relative access largely determined by historical, political, economic and cultural contexts. That such technologies have become important engines of economic development has made a critical evaluation of their complicities in and complex relationships to particular socio-cultural, economic and political ways of being especially difficult. That one can simultaneously critique technologies and yet enjoy the benefits and pleasures of some particular technologies might seem like a compromise and sell-out for some, but is a necessary aspect of one’s being in a world infused with such technologies to a point where opting out is both pragmatically impossible and ethically irresponsible.

In the art world, the problems of how one critically evaluates creative uses of technology are often confused with the questions of how one creatively enables the critical uses of technology. The themes for ISEA2008 Symposium have been selected to respond thus to the challenges of new and old technologies in creatively engaging the critical problems and possibilities of our age.

Symposium themes:
* Locating media
* Wiki Wiki
* Ludic Interfaces
* Reality Jam
* Border Transmissions

The Voyager Golden Record is a phonograph record included in the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. It contains sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. It is intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or far future humans, that may find it. The Voyager spacecraft would take about 40,000 years to reach the distance of the star nearest the Sun, Alpha Centauri at a distance of 4.4 light-years, though neither craft is travelling toward that star.

The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind, and thunder, and animal sounds, including the songs of birds and whales. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, spoken greetings in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim.

Music On Voyager Record

* Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
* Java, court gamelan, “Kinds of Flowers,” recorded by Robert Brown. 4:43
* Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
* Zaire, Pygmy girls’ initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull. 0:56
* Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26
* Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
* “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
* New Guinea, men’s house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan. 1:20
* Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (”Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51
* Bach, “Gavotte en rondeaux” from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux. 2:55
* Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
* Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
* Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
* “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
* Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30
* Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor. 4:35
* Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano. 4:48
* Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
* Bulgaria, “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin,” sung by Valya Balkanska. 4:59
* Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
* Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17
* Solomon Islands, panpipes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service. 1:12
* Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
* China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37
* India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30
* “Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson. 3:15
* Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B flat, Opus 130, Cavatina, performed by Budapest String Quartet. 6:37

A professor at MIT, Edward Lorenz was the first to recognize what is now called chaotic behavior in the mathematical modeling of weather systems. In the early 1960s, Lorenz realized that small differences in a dynamic system such as the atmosphere–or a model of the atmosphere–could trigger vast and often unsuspected results.

These observations ultimately led him to formulate what became known as the butterfly effect–a term that grew out of an academic paper he presented in 1972 entitled: “Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?”

Lorenz’s early insights marked the beginning of a new field of study that impacted not just the field of mathematics but virtually every branch of science–biological, physical and social. In meteorology, it led to the conclusion that it may be fundamentally impossible to predict weather beyond two or three weeks with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

Some scientists have since asserted that the 20th century will be remembered for three scientific revolutions–relativity, quantum mechanics and chaos.

In 1991, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize for basic sciences in the field of earth and planetary sciences. Lorenz was cited by the Kyoto Prize committee for establishing “the theoretical basis of weather and climate predictability, as well as the basis for computer-aided atmospheric physics and meteorology.” The committee added that Lorenz “made his boldest scientific achievement in discovering ‘deterministic chaos,’ a principle which has profoundly influenced a wide range of basic sciences and brought about one of the most dramatic changes in mankind’s view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton.”

The BioBricks Foundation (BBF) is a not-for-profit organization founded by engineers and scientists from MIT, Harvard, and UCSF with significant experience in both non-profit and commercial biotechnology research. BBF encourages the development and responsible use of technologies based on BioBrick™ standard DNA parts that encode basic biological functions.

Using BioBrick™ standard biological parts, a synthetic biologist or biological engineer can already, to some extent, program living organisms in the same way a computer scientist can program a computer. The DNA sequence information and other characteristics of BioBrick™ standard biological parts are made available to the public free of charge currently via MIT’s Registry of Standard Biological Parts.

Any individual or organization is welcome to design, improve, and contribute BioBrick™ standard biological parts to the Registry. For example, in the summer of 2007, over 600 students and instructors at 60+ universities around the world are making, sharing, and using BioBrick™ standard biological parts as part of the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition.

Currently, The BioBricks Foundation’s goals are:

* to develop and implement legal strategies to ensure that BioBrick™ standard biological parts remain freely available to the public;
* to encourage the development of codes of standard practice for the use of BioBrick™ standard biological parts; and
* to develop and provide educational and scientific materials to allow the public to use and improve existing BioBrick™ standard biological parts, and contribute new BioBrick™ standard biological parts.

The Moon Goddess

Waiting, she finds her silk stockings
soaked with the dew drops
glistening on the marble steps.
Finally, she is moving
to let the crystal-woven curtain fall
when she casts one more glance
at the glamorous autumn moon.

Li Bai, aka Li Po (701-762)

China published its first moon image sent back by its lunar probe Chang’e-1, named after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon.

The picture was pieced together from 19 images, each covering a width of 60 kilometers of the moon’s surface. The area covered by the picture, about 460 kilometers in length and 280 kilometers in width, is located within a 54 to 70 degrees south latitude and 57 to 83 degrees east longitude on the moon, according to sources with Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC).

The camera aboard China’s lunar probe Chang’e-1 is a high performance CCD (Charge Coupled Device) stereo camera, which has three lenses to take photos of the lunar surface from three different angles to build up a 3D image.

Hao Xifan, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration Center of China’s Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense, said that the 3D image will possibly be published in January next year.

Chang’e-1 is expected to photograph the whole lunar surface in a month, as the moon’s rotation period is one month.
After Chang’e-1 sends back the data, researchers have to spend months piecing together the data and complete the entire lunar surface image.

Scientists of the Pierre Auger Collaboration announced on 8 Nov. 2007 that active galactic nuclei are the most likely candidate for the source of the highest-energy cosmic rays that hit Earth. Using the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, the largest cosmic-ray observatory in the world, a team of scientists from 17 countries found that the sources of the highest-energy particles are not distributed uniformly across the sky. Instead, the Auger results link the origins of these mysterious particles to the locations of nearby galaxies that have active nuclei in their centers. The results appear in the Nov. 9 issue of the journal Science.

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are thought to be powered by supermassive black holes that are devouring large amounts of matter. They have long been considered sites where high-energy particle production might take place. They swallow gas, dust and other matter from their host galaxies and spew out particles and energy. While most galaxies have black holes at their center, only a fraction of all galaxies have an AGN. The exact mechanism of how AGNs can accelerate particles to energies 100 million times higher than the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth is still a mystery.

“We have taken a big step forward in solving the mystery of the nature and origin of the highest-energy cosmic rays, first revealed by French physicist Pierre Auger in 1938,” said Nobel Prize winner James Cronin, of the University of Chicago, who conceived the Pierre Auger Observatory together with Alan Watson of the University of Leeds. “We find the southern hemisphere sky as observed in ultra-high-energy cosmic rays is non-uniform. This is a fundamental discovery. The age of cosmic-ray astronomy has arrived. In the next few years our data will permit us to identify the exact sources of these cosmic rays and how they accelerate these particles.”