On May 1, 1947 Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. She had landed supine on a parked limousine and came to rest in an attitude that suggested peaceful sleep. The photo is often referred to as ‘The most beautiful suicide’.
Photographed by Robert Wiles.
Fred Eversley was born in 1941 in New York. When Eversley launched his career in the late 1960’s, he differed from the Minimalists that were so influential at the time - he was less interested in committing himself to the simplicity of form. Instead, he emphasized the energy fluctuations of physics and metaphysics as well as the representation of interactive properties. Eversley sought to express his concerns about energy, and the possibility of transforming solar energy into electrical power impelled him into an exploration of the parabola and parabolic shapes as energy trapping structures.
Jennifer Ouellette takes you through the strange science of flavor preference as she admits to being a tomato-hater.
We’ve heard of those segments of the population that despise cilantro on a molecular level, who can or can’t taste savory umami, and now I discover that a surprising number of people hate the taste of raw tomatoes too?
It’s an alien sensation to me, as I go for pretty much anything when it comes to food. I’ll eat cilantro like it’s salad greens and tomatoes like they’re apples. But the science of flavor recognition is a complex one, and certain genes can alter the way we perceive volatile aromas, how our mouth and nose react to flavor compounds and even change how we discern the molecular structure of core nutrients in our food.
Go check out Jennifer’s wonderful and in-depth flavor science piece at Cocktail Party Physics, and save your tomatoes for me. They’re about to be in season.
Takashi Homma, Mushrooms from the Forest 2011 #14, C-print, 267 x 337 mm, 2011
(image courtesy of blind gallery)
