bioephemera

About BioE

bioephemera is what Lewis Carroll calls a "portmanteau" word. I wanted a name that was both scientific and whimsical, because I saw my blog as a balance between those two impulses. "Bio" was easy – I’m a biologist – and I settled on "ephemera" because it captured something fundamental about the transient, always-changing nature of a blog.

For me, the word "ephemeral" draws a lot of significant ideas together: it describes records like diaries or almanacs, the precursors of blogs; cultural artifacts like posters and advertisements; and short-lived species, like insects, that figure prominently in my artwork.

Importantly, "ephemeral" doesn't mean trivial. From an evolutionary perspective, not only individual organisms, but entire species are ephemeral. There’s a lot of wonderful ephemeral art and design that will never make it into a museum’s permanent collection, from ads to T-shirts to graffiti to digital art. The art ecosystem, like the biological ecosystem, the sprawling internet, and even science itself, is always changing and being redefined. The word “bioephemera” reflects that dynamic.

bioephemera used to be located at http://www.bioephemera.com, and there is still a substantial content archive there. BioE moved to Scienceblogs.com in February, 2008.

About Jessica

A biologist-artist with an excruciatingly abbreviated attention span, I ask many annoying questions, and dabble in pretty much everything except music and math. My addictions include watercolors, illustrated books, old houses, jogging, The New Yorker, my iPhone, collecting insects, and rambling conversations with clever people.

On some inarticulate level, I meant to become a Victorian-style naturalist with an extensive library of classics, who sits in the sun drawing insects and leaves, and perhaps writing the occasional sonnet. Unfortunately, I'm also a reductionist with the urge to dissect cellular mechanisms down to genes and proteins. I somehow didn't realize until well into my PhD that molecular geneticists work not in bucolic fields or quiet libraries with leather armchairs, but in sterile labs with very peculiar odors. They don't usually draw, and sonnets are right out. Oops.

After grad school, I taught anatomy and physiology, developmental biology, genetics, and introductory philosophy of science at a small college in a rural state. A few years ago, I remodeled my house, sold it along with most of my belongings, packed the station wagon, and moved back to civilization* (*primarily defined as ready access to sushi). I've now left the West coast for the East coast, to explore a different side of science - a side involving neither minipreps nor fly pushing nor faculty meetings.

Bioephemera is my outlet for random observations and connections about pretty much everything. We'll always circle back to biology and art, but the trajectory will be roundabout, cephalopods and medievalists lurk in the undergrowth, and you should probably pack a picnic lunch.

Caveat lector.