Fish sculptures from plastic bottles!

I saw this today via Colossal (thanks to the Ecological Society of America for posting a link!): giant fish sculptures made of plastic bottles at the 2012 Rio 20+ U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development! I’m not sure I need to spoil this with words, so here are the fantastic photos:

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Curiously, I can’t find any information out there about who the actual artist is – almost all sources attribute this work to the conference itself. Any ideas out there?

If you’re interested in learning more about sustainability issues in our world’s oceans, please visit the UN’s site: http://www.un.org/en/sustainablefuture/oceans.shtml

The Art of Evolution

Image from Genetic Drift Simulation on http://theartofevolution.tumblr.com/ © 2012 Ammon Thompson + Laura Crothers

My good friends at They Blinded Me With Science have an exciting program tonight! They’ll be interviewing University of Texas at Austin graduate student Ammon Thompson about a new art-science collaboration called The Art of Evolution, in which you can explore incredibly creative visualizations of simulations about common topics in evolutionary biology. Currently, the website features interactive simulations on Mating, Genetic Drift and Coalescence.

Tune in tonight, on the radio (KVRX student radio 91.7FM, Austin, TX), or online (www.kvrx.org) from 8:30-9:00pm to learn more about this exciting project!

Mass Extinction Graphic – NYTimes.com

I came across a really striking graphic today on The New York TImes, Are We in the Middle of a Sixth Mass Extinction? by Bill Marsh associated with the OpEd Protecting Many Species to Help Our Own. The credit for the image is a little ambiguous (is just the data from IUCN or is the entire graphic?). What do you think – is this a helpful way for you to visualize this information?