ScienceBlogs

One of the sites I visit every day is ScienceBlogs.com. I think it's vitally important, for many reasons, to support good science and science education in our country, and these guys are superior in that regard.

I don't comment much at other blogs, because I don't usually have anything articulate or interesting enough to say. Other commenters and the blog owner are so smart and coherent that I try not to put in my paltry two cents. But I wanted to do something to help out those who are out there fighting the good fight, so I designed two banners for the bloggers there.

The most recent was for Grrl Scientist, who publishes "Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)". Here's the new banner I did for her:



It took a lot of iterations, but we finally arrived at something I think we're both pretty happy with, which is ultimately the goal for this kind of design. She studies bird issues, specifically the genetic sequences and evolution of the lory, which is the bird at the right. The image moves from the actual DNA sequences to a strand of DNA, to a map of the region where they live, and finally to the bird itself.

The other banner I did for them was for one of my favorite bloggers, the always sharp and funny Ed Brayton over at "Dispatches From the Culture Wars":



The background image is from a famous painting by Raphael, called "The School of Athens". It depicts the great philosophers and mathematicians and poets of antiquity all gathered together, and it's located in the Sistene Chapel in the Vatican. I thought it was a good mix of all the things Ed talks about in his blog.

Even if you don't have the expertise or time or skill to directly help out a cause you believe in, think about how to support those who do. We also serve who stay behind and draw :-) And if you get the chance, check out the ScienceBlog folks, there's some really great writing about science, culture, and sometimes even poker going on there.