By Ted Kinsman
This week I am pleased to introduce Martin Waugh, a physicist turned artist. Martin is trained as a physicist and he has transformed his basement into a high speed studio dedicated solely to photographing water droplets. There is little doubt that he is the world leader in the field. His images have been used by companies as diverse as Coca Cola and the Discovery TV show “Time Warp.” It is hard to envision how something so simple as a droplet of …

By Karen A. Frenkel
Amazon released Kindle 2, the second version of its e-reader, two days ago on Monday February 23, and product reviews and Op Eds are upon us. Sony has been competing with its Reader 700. A Dutch company, iREX makes an e-reader called the ILiad. And start-up Plastic Logic, of Mountain View, CA, recently demonstrated a prototype of its device.
Amazon won’t release sales figures. Sony claims it sold 300,000 devices since its original debuted in 2006. Publishers are creating electronic versions of their titles—about 240,000 titles are available. …

By Justin Peacock

Standing at 6’7″ tall, Will Allen’s height is obviously one of the first things people notice about the CEO and founder of Growing Power, Inc. I had the privilege of hearing Allen speak at a Yale University sponsored Sustainable Food seminar. The aspects of Allen that stuck out most to me were not his physical height, but the height of his character. Symbols of that character were his wide grin, faded blue hoodie, and cracked, rough hands. Shaking those hands, I caught a glimpse of the type …

By Alan S. Brown
I remember kissing my first girlfriend, Barbara, in her backyard when I was 17. It was a warm spring day and things were starting to warm up when she suddenly pushed me away and said, “Why are we doing this?”
I tried the answer most likely to reapply my lips to hers, “Because it feels good.”
That didn’t work. “I mean,” she continued, “would we kiss if the whole culture hadn’t taught us to kiss? Would people naturally want to push their tongues into someone else’s mouth?”
I don’t remember …

By Nikki Saint Bautista
BRYANT PARK, NYC- As the stock market continues to plunge and daily news reports remain bleak, the 2009 Mercedes-Benz fashion week offers more than slight stimulation of the local economy- it’s a study on the rules of attraction.
Headbands in the Alexandre Herchcovitch collection, Anna Sui’s multi-patterned Bohemian dresses and Calvin Klein’s symmetrical tight-fitted men’s suits all enhance our perception of the wearer’s good genes. Therefore, the runway at a time of economic distress is not a self-indulgent waste of resources; it is a display of Darwinian fitness …

By Stephanie Levi
I had the pleasure of hearing Al Gore speak at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference last week. Here are the Cliff’s Notes of his talk. I would have loved to post video of it for you, but recording of sessions was not permitted and I’m no rule breaker, so here is the next best thing. Trust me, it was excellent.

By Blair Bolles

A Neanderthal man, as depicted at the American Museum of Natural History. If we put this fellow in some clothes and sent him on his way, how would he do?
As reported previously on Babel’s Dawn, the draft version of the Neanderthal genome was presented in Chicago last week (press release here) and it confirms the earlier finding that Neanderthal’s share the same FOXP2 gene found in humans. FOXP2 is the most important gene known to support language. Without it in its human form, rapid speech and the ability …

By IUCN
The oceans are home to some of our most fascinating creatures, as well as those most at risk of extinction. Photographer Juergen Freund has spent the last 14 years taking underwater images of many threatened marine species, particularly in waters off the Philippines and Australia where he lives. Through his award-winning photography he hopes to shed some light on the majesty and the plight of ocean dwelling organisms. He speaks to Wild Talk about three of his pictures. To listen and see the pictures, click here

Portrait of a Minke …

By IUCN
Deep sea explorer Sylvia Earle has led more than 50 expeditions and clocked up some 6,000 hours underwater. A dedicated champion of the deep ocean, Wild Talk catches up with her over the phone from her home in California, to ask how she felt when she won the 2009 TED prize. Sylvia discusses the dire situation planet ocean is in and speaks of her hope that we still have time to turn the situation around. To listen, click here.

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Will the world finally agree this year on how to combat climate change? All hopes are pinned on the United Nations climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December, which should come up with an agreement to succeed the Kyoto protocol that runs out in 2012. Wild Talk speaks to IUCN’s Climate Change Officer, Ninni Ikkala, about the challenges ahead and what IUCN is doing to help keep negotiations on track. To listen, click here.

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