Most scientists from the late Twenties would never have consider Cinema as tool of scientific observation. For this reason, movies by Jean Painlevé were despised and never given credit as an educational interface.

Ironically, what goes around comes around and Painlevé is regarded today as one of the fathers of scientific documentary. Here are 2 short films he shot around 1930.

While most biologists would have bet that cyanobacteria and fish do not mix, the Synechococcus that Agapakis injected into the eggs were still alive two weeks after the fish hatched, which is the point when the pigment of zebrafish develops. The bacteria might survive longer in a transparent strain.

I told you.

Tonight is Sunday. I transmit from a small cottage in Romandy, Switzerland. It’s cold outside AND inside. I’m wearing a coat. And listening to THIS.

So what? I mean, good for so-and-so, really, but also, good for me, and good for you too, because we all do what we do and sometimes, that’s worth feeling happy about.

…’The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible’ (Vladimir Nabokov)

…just one more day? Promise.

I recently grew an obsession with shagreen, a very specific kind of leather consisting of rough untanned skin. It used to be cut up from a horse’s croup and dyed green afterwards.

The word shagreen derives from chagrin in French, meaning sorrow. For those familiar with Balzac, La Peau de chagrin is made of this crude leather. The word chagrin itself derives from the Turkish word sagrï, meaning the prepared skin.