cientific breakthroughs have always provided a fertile source of inspiration for artists. SF writers explore the potential of new discoveries as fast as scientists can make them, pushing the envelope of what is known while speculating about possible future findings. Similarly, illustrators can take ecologists' direst predictions about global warming (or any other consequence of human excess) and use them to create horrifying vistas of ravaged Earths of the near future.
At DNA Music Central, science provides a different sort of creative genesis for art. The site's name says it all: The human genome is used as the basis for a series of 24 musical compositions, one song derived from each of chromosomes 1 through 22, plus another from the X
and Y chromosomes. Visitors to the site can listen to 30-second samples from each and every piece of music in this oddball collection of electronica.
DNA Music Central and its songs are the creation of Henry Allan Hargrove, a composer whose passion is sampling human DNA and recoding it into musical form. His site is simple, barely more than a single page, and reflects a single-minded determination to create and disseminate this music. Though the page includes an essay outlining the nature of DNA and the genetic music derived therefrom, its primary purpose is not to educate but to share samples of Hargrove's music with anyone who happens to surf by.
Due to this narrow focus, DNA Music Central's sole link out to the rest of the Internet takes visitors to a scientific article about the history of genetic music, one that details the various uses to which this music can be put by researchers. Art, in this case, furthers the work of scientists, who return the favor in an endless feedback loop.
— A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—February 9, 2004
he English-speaking world is divided into two kinds of people: Those who find it fascinating to browse the Oxford English Dictionary, and those who don't. If you are one of the former—a word-head, an etymology nut, a lover of language—and you are also a reader of SF, then you need to visit the site known as Science Fiction Citations for the OED. Here, you will not only be rewarded with fascinating tidbits about the derivation of many words found in the SF literary canon (and that includes SF criticism and SF fandom), but you'll also become part of a vast distributed project, contributing to scholarship and the unending quest for meaning that characterizes the OED.
The layout of this site is simplicity itself. The main page describes the project: amateur word sleuths of all stripes are invited to offer citations ("cites") that will help nail down the ultimate origins of SF words in the three areas of literature, criticism and fandom. Clicking on those three buttons brings up the list of words in play. Here's where the truly alluring and mysterious atmosphere begins. By each word is the trail to date: cites and their contributors in a chain extending ever backward in time. The roll call of players is a Who's Who of the genre. Can you beat the earliest date so far adduced? Get cracking! Perhaps you can offer a cite that fills in a long gap or brings a word seemingly abandoned into the present. In any case, you'd best click on "How to Cite" so you can learn the necessary format.
But just reading the lists is educational. Did you have a hunch that Philip K. Dick invented the term "precog"? Well, you were right. When exactly did Theodore Sturgeon coin "Sturgeon's Law"? And why was it first called "Sturgeon's Revelation"? All these answers and more await you—and also the chance to go down in history as the person who found a reference to "death rays" earlier than 1919!
— Paul Di Filippo
Site of the Week—February 2, 2004
osted by The Discovery Channel and with spinoff sites for Canada, Asia and Europe, Spaceref seeks to be the ultimate online resource on the topic of space science and exploration, a deep well of reference materials for students, professionals and space buffs everywhere.
The site is a dense nest of links and articles about every aspect of space, from current NASA missions to the dynamics of space weather. It has a gallery of photos and multimedia offerings and a calendar of space-related events like launches and scientific conferences. With Spaceref, a user can track the investigation into the space shuttle Columbia disaster, follow
current remote explorations of Mars or develop a basic layperson's understanding of proposed future technologies like a space elevator. Digging back a few years into the site's archives, visitors can also relive older space stories—read up on the demise of the Mir space station, for example—as if they were happening today.
Spaceref supports various space-related research projects, currently acting as sponsor to the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse. This structure is a remotely operated greenhouse located in Nunavut, Canada, designed to teach scientists about some of the ins and outs of possibly operating a greenhouse—or several—on the surface of Mars in the future.
Frequently updated, easy to navigate, and very rich in content, Spaceref is an obvious online stopping-place for anyone with an appetite for space news, facts and exploration science.
— A.M. Dellamonica
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