A History of Human Oddity

To get us geared up for Halloween, let's head to the The Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on an exploration of the mysteries of human existence, and the history of medical diagnosis and treatment.


The medical museum contains a collection of medical oddities, anatomical and pathological specimens, wax models, and antique medical equipment, including 139 skulls, a 19th century amputation kit, a 74 pound cyst, a murderer's brain and a collection of swallowed objects.

The bulk of the collection was donated by Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter in 1858. He had collected the specimens for biomedical research and education. America's finest museum of medical history, it displays its collections in a nineteenth-century "cabinet museum" setting.

A Russian newspaper recently listed the Mütter Museum #1 on the 10 Most Horrible Places — Chernobyl was listed at #8.

Take a video tour of the Mütter via Martha Stewart here, or explore some of the artifacts in their 360° online collection.

Fonts You Can Touch?

A few weeks ago I went to see Daniel Dejan speak on the Neoroscience of Touch, a lecture presented by Veritiv based on a printed piece by Sappi Paper of the same name.

The focus of the presentation was on the importance of tactile in meaningful communication. Since it was sponsored by a paper company, clearly the message was that paper is key to a brand experience

However, this was shown using a lot of interesting science, including haptics — the study of how what we touch shapes what we feel. Renowned neoroscientist and best-selling author Dr. Eagleman supplied the research that is the basis for the piece. Per Sappi's usual standards, it's a beautiful book... and the audience couldn't stop touching it.

Since I don't feel comfortable discussing the science behind Eagleman's research, I want to talk about the font on the piece.

Rigsby Hull, the Houston-based firm who designed the book, was inspired by a unique font they noticed in a reprint of a mid-1800s tome. As a result of this discovery, they developed a distinctive typeface — a revival and recreation of a font originally made by Jules Didot in the 1800s.

The Didot family had been in the printing, publishing and typography for generations. This new font is a variation of the time-honored classic Didot, but with rounded curves rather than sharp edges.

Rigsby Hull located the original 1842 volume of Jules Didot's fonts published as Specimen de la Nouvelle Foundrie in a collection at the Bibliothèque Nacional de France.

The font had never been commercialized so Rigsby Hull commissioned Dunwich Type Foundry to recut the font. This new version, dubbed Science Modern, is expected to be available for purchase in 2016.

#fontsarecool

Ever wonder what a tear looks like up close?

In The Topography of Tears, photographic artist Rose-Lynn Fisher has captured, dried and studied one of her tears under a microscope. The results are beautiful and interesting on their own. 

BUT, she didn't stop there:

"Eventually, I started wondering—would a tear of grief look any different than a tear of joy? And how would they compare to, say, an onion tear?"

Tears of Laughter

Tears of Grief

Onion Tears

The results show the emotional terrain of tears, and the chemical and hormonal make-up that changes as the body undergoes various stresses. 

I know that no two snowflakes are the same, but I find in interesting that this applies to tears as well, and even more interesting, that the situation and conditions that cause the tears affect this make-up — which I'm sure is true in the case of snowflakes too!

Oh, Science. 

Originally seen on the Smithsonian

Natural Frozen Wonders

Winter is rapidly approaching, and as I prepare to cover my plants for the impending frost, I cross my fingers in secret hope that one day I'll come across a rare frost flower. 

A frost flower is created on early winter mornings when extremely thin layers of ice are pushed out from plant stems or sometimes wood.

Conditions have to be just so for frost flowers to form. Temperatures must be freezing but the ground must not be.

Read more about the science behind these frozen petioles here.