03 Jul
142/365(+1) by Luca Rossini
142/365(+1), a photo by Luca Rossini on Flickr.

Lens: Voigtlander color-skopar 35mm f2.5
Camera: NEX-7, ISO1600, f2.5, 1/40 raw

You’ll never guess what is this photo picturing. I liked the abstract monochrome shape of the thing and the white dust giving it the right amount of textures. So, can you guess the object?
I spent the day at the “10 years of the act”, an un-conference, which means that each attendant had the opportunity to propose a topic to be discussed. There were more than 100 people, for the most scientists from all over the world, less than half of which were my ex-colleagues or ex act members, and at the end around 28 topics were proposed. I had the luck to enjoy once more the crazy topics that this research group loves to share, like wormholes, the space Noah ark, massive swarm robotics, space cities, and so on.
My speech was late in the afternoon, it focused on the new trends on brain-machine interfaces, especially on invasive ones. It was fun.
By the end of the day we were all drunk at the cocktail party. The new artificial-intelligence guy spent the night preparing star-trek patented drinks, a red and a blue one, I don’t remember the names, though. The ACT remains the closest thing to the “Big Bang Theory” characters I’ve ever met, and every time I deeply enjoy the nerdish and witty irony of these weirdos.

6 thoughts on “142/365(+1)”

  1. Right, so I don't know what that is, it almost looks like the rubber no slide foot on the bottom of something. Reminds me when you put rice or something in a speaker or subwoofer and turn the sound on and watch vibration pattern. On other notes, I don't think I would understand the majority of things you have to talk about science wise. As much as I like science I keep a small about of knowledge of many topics rather then a lot of knowledge of a few topics but it sounds like you've managed to do a lot of knowledge about a lot of topics! Hopefully one day if we meet we can talk at the same level about some science topic 😉 At least we can geek out about NEX cameras!

    1. the mysterious object is, in fact, the ventilator fan of the toilet in the pub close to the where we're staying in Leiden. The white dust, however, I have no idea what it is, I find it even slightly disgusting…
      knowledge is unique, there is never an end to it and hence in can't really be measured, can it? Anyway, I had the luck to work for a couple of years with the ACT in ESA, which, being a multidisciplinary group, taught me a lot about the new trends in science on many different topics…
      Anyway, I hope we'll meet one day. I'll keep you tuned on my trips here on the blog, if I happen to be anywhere near you please let me know 🙂

    2. I think its always unwise to see what's in a ventilation fan, I don't want to know the crap that I can't avoid inhaling! When I was a kid, one of the magazines I read had a “what is it?” macro photo contest every month, I was instantly reminded of that by your article! Yes, if you make it to my side of pond let me know, I'm in Canada for 18 months before I can travel to Europe again while my GF's permanent VISA is sorted.

    3. unwise, indeed!
      I could happen to be in Vancouver next summer, nothing organized yet, but there's a professor at Simon Fraser University which invited me for a working visit.

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