End of (Science) Times (for now)

I’ve let this blog go quiet for a few months now, planning to get back to my weekly posts of new and old NYTimes Science Times illustrations…but it just hasn’t happened. Happily, we’re still doing the column. And, also happily, illustration in general is busy. But it’s just been too much to keep up with my regular work blog and my tumblr and Drawing Science, so I’m closing up shop, at least for now. I’ll be leaving the blog here, as an archive of the assignments, and maybe I’ll get back to it eventually. Thanks to everyone who checked out the posts each week, and to everyone who took a moment to comment.

 

Science Times October 14, 2013

The column this week was about how babies begin to anticipate their hands moving to their mouths in the womb. And to make it a little more challenging, unlike the usual 4″ width, word counts ran long and we had to work with 1.8″ wide.  When coming up with ideas, you start out thinking – OK, what else is this like? But that didn’t really work here. It’s not really like anything. Here are the sketches:

 

In such a small space, the idea had to be an instant read, and I had 1.8″ to get your attention, so the color and shapes needed to be bold and graphic. Here is the final:

 

Thanks for reading!

Science Times October 7, 2013

This was a stumper. I’m not making apologies…just saying. The column was about how sea sponges recycle nutrients in a coral reef ecosystem that are then consumed by snails or hermit crabs. Sooooo, here are the few ideas I managed to squeak out.

 

Sometimes without the pressure of a deadline, the perfect solution will just pop into my head after the fact.

Still nothing.

Here is the final, which made a nice image even if the idea was just ok. Big thanks to Peter, as always.

Science Times September 23, 2013

Here are the sketches for this week’s Science Times column:

 

The article was about injections of a protein that can restore normal bone growth in mice that exhibited characteristics of dwarfism. The problem is a single mutated receptor in the genetic code and scientists were able to promote proper growth by treating the mice with a decoy receptor. I tried a couple of things with the sketches, either fixing the bone at the genetic level, or the injections. Here is the final that ran yesterday:

 

Thanks for reading!

Science Times September 13, 2013

Almost all caught up posting these! Last week’s column was about the first discovery ever of a gear-like mechanism in nature. The tiny leaf-hopping insects have interlocking joints that propel their long jumps. Here are the sketches:

 

This was another example of a week where I got very little of the story initially, including not knowing the name of the insect. I wasn’t entirely sure from what I received from the AD if it was more about the mechanism specifically or how they jump great distances as a result. Happily one of my guess sketches worked, and here is the final:

 

At the last minute, the Times was able to get a series of photos and a video, and even though I never like to see the illustration get 86ed, it’s definitely worth watching here.

Science Times September 9, 2013

For whatever reason, lately I am getting shorter and shorter summaries of the articles and it leads to a little guesswork with the sketches. The article was about how the genes on the Y chromosome are weaker and more sensitive to environmental factors. Since I had no idea what the environmental factors were, I used the X chromosome as a basis for the comparison. Here are the sketches:

 

The AD and I both liked the sagging Y arm but he was concerned that we didn’t have enough depth to pull off the Y or we would have to crop too much of the head. So we decided to go with the parody of old Charles Atlas comic book ad:

Specifically the classic sand-kicked-in-your-face panel:

A symbol of male weakness throughout the ages, I tried to keep the feel of the original and just change a little to fit the story (the X chromosome is much stronger that the Y, although rarely pushes it around):

Thanks for reading!

 

Science Times August 23, 2013

I’ve missed a few weeks here since we moved so I’m going to try to catch up on recent illustrations and then get back to posting archive items. Speaking of moving, I did sketches for Science on the very night we moved in, and since my computer wasn’t even set up yet, I had to send a photo from my phone:

 

The story was about how the new atomic clocks are even more accurate than the old ones, by like a hundred millionth of a second or something. You have to admire that kind of commitment to accurate time-keeping. Here is the final:

 

Another new post coming tomorrow!

Drawing Science 100th Post!

I am very proud to announce the 100th Post of Drawing Science! Thanks so much for reading this and any of the prior 99. I knew immediately which image I wanted to use for this happy occasion and finally, here we are!

This illustration ran on July 19, 2010 for a column about why macaroni penguins lay two eggs, one large and one small. This spot, which has come to be the mascot for this blog, was just a photo that I drew on with a sharpie. I included it in the sketches just for fun, and the art director not only chose it, but ran the sketch just the way it was. Funny, you never can tell which spot is going to end up one of your all-time favorites. Happy 100!

 

 

Science Times August 19, 2013

The column in today’s NYTimes is about new software that can detect a faked photo by finding and  analyzing any suspect shadows. There was so much to play around with in this story and I had a lot of fun working on the sketches. Here are the ones that didn’t make it:

 

I immediately went for the faked lunar landing reference. That’s one of my favorite conspiracy theories (and holiday dinner topics) and even though it didn’t make it, it was fun to put it in the mix. Also getting honorable mention: Pinocchio shadow, faked hand shadow puppet, and man with woman shadow. But, here is the image we chose:

 

Here’s why I like it – it works for the forensic analysis, and I especially like that the shadow is drawn differently than the little inspector, making it seem further out of place. I don’t know if anyone else will get that but hey, it’s the little things.

Science Times August 12, 2013

The column this week was about new DNA evidence that places Y Chromosome Adam and Mitochondrial Eve, our two closest ancestors, in the same place at about the same time. Prior to this study, evolutionary biologists thought Eve was walking around Africa about 100,000 years before Adam, so this is a big change in our picture of early man. Here are the sketches – Evolution Eve surprised to see Adam, chromosome initials carved into Tree of Knowledge, and Eve finding a sign of Adam in the Garden:

We decided that Adam Wuz Here was the winner. I was happy with that choice until I remembered that I never like my trees. And so I spent hours drawing and redrawing that stupid tree until I completely freaked out and also finished the evolution Eve sketch as an emergency backup, and sent both to the AD in the morning. I still hate that tree. Here are both finals, and Adam is the one that ran:

 

Science Times Archive January 28, 2013

Why is something from this year an archive post? Good question. This never made it to the blog, probably because it was a busy week and I decided to save it for a rainy day. The column was about the recent discovery that Viagra works just as well as a fat-burning diet pill (miracle drug, huh?). This was one of those stories that would have been amazing to illustrate for Playboy, but got pretty neutered for the NYTimes. Even though the final art played it safe, this was one of my favorite batches of sketches ever:

 

I had my heart set on top left and bottom right, but they decided to go with this little guy instead:

 

Thanks for reading!

Science Times August 5, 2013

The art director sent me the blurb this week with the following brief note attached:

Here is an easy one. Not.

The column was about using gold nano-particles to control blood flow during surgery and post-op healing. In spite of how encouraging that email wasn’t, I managed to send in a few ideas I really liked. Here are the ones that didn’t make the cut:

 

The pot of gold sketch was a close second, but here is the winner:

 

Here are some bloods with bling from the margins of my paper…

 

 

Science Times July 22, 2013

This week’s Science Times column was about how wind affects the spin of a game ball. In this case, the researchers focused on cricket and how wind would influence random spinning rather than just topspin or underspin. Here are the sketches:

 

Believe it or not there were loads of possibilities between wind and cricket and I edited from 8 or 9 sketches down to these 4. I had a couple of favorites in this batch and happily they picked one of them. Here is the final:

 

Science Times July 15, 2013

The NYTimes Observatory column this week was about a new process for coating microscopic objects like colloidal particles or bacteria cells. Here are the sketches:

I rarely or never go for a pun with the art but this time around it seemed like a winner, especially mingling the bacteria photos with the simple line art. (Oh and I forgot to mention that the coatings are color which is where the palette and painter sketches came from.) My gut was telling me the whole time that tiny coats was the way to go, and here it is in the paper and online today:

And a detail…

Science Times July 8, 2013

I had been working on this week’s sketches for hours and just hitting a wall. The column was about how the first meal a lizard has determines all these factors that will play out during it’s life – how far away it will travel to live, how fast or slow it will be, even certain reproductive tendencies. Thanks to my illustrator pals for all the great brainstorming to unstuck my brain, here are the sketches:

With the sketches I wanted to show how this meal was an event that determined their path in life rather than addressing any of the specifics, as those can sometimes change from when I get the story to the final draft. Here is the spot we decided to go with, thanks for reading!

Science Times Archive – Date Unknown

This is an oldie. I know that because the art isn’t archived with the story and that makes searching the NYTimes database for a date a little difficult. I have gotten lucky a few times in the past with archive items but not for this little guy. I am going to guess this was around 2006 or so, and the article was about how melting glaciers after the last ice age reshaped the Earth’s crust.

Science Times July 1, 2013

Finally, we’re back!

I have some catching up to do, starting with last week’s story. The column was about a protein treatment that effectively blocks a rat’s memory of being intoxicated. The implication is that it could be used to help alcoholics recover more easily by inhibiting their pleasurable memories of drinking. Here are the sketches:

 

I thought for sure that the corked memory bottle or the empty six-pack holder/thought bubble were going to be the one. The beer head/thought bubble was actually my last idea, but I can see how that is probably the quickest read and why they chose it (which I was perfectly happy with, by the way). Here is the final:

Science Times Top 10

There was no Observatory column this week and I ended up illustrating a Health story instead. I really only want to post Observatory spots here so until we’re back next Tuesday, here are my top 10 most favorite spots from nine years at Science Times (in no particular order)…

Bowerbirds cultivate plants with ornamental berries to use as decoration to attract a mate:

 

Grasshoppers change their song to be heard over nearby traffic:

 

Veterinarians vaccinate an entire population of wolves:

 

Honeybees do a waggle dance as a form of communication in the hive:

 

The most powerful microscope ever created:

 

City heat can warm the air up to 1000 miles away:

 

Moths emit a signal to disrupt the sonar used by their bat predators:

 

The proton found to be smaller than previously believed:

 

Children refuse to help adults whom they perceive as having bad intentions:

 

Boiled Greek coffee may hold a key to longevity:

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Science Times June 3, 2013

Today’s column is about a mutation in mosquitos that inhibits their ability to smell humans. Here are the sketches:

 

I really thought deodorant was the metaphor that was perfect but I never quite got it to work as an image. I tried so many variations but it just wouldn’t click, bah. I liked both of the other ideas also and the clothespin won out in the end.

Science Times Archive December 19, 2011

This was one of the last Science Times spots before I started this blog, and so even though it isn’t that old, it still qualifies as “archive”. Anything having to do with space is amazing, period. This column was about a gas cloud that is being sucked into a black hole at the center of the Milky Way. It’s the first time astrophysicists are actually getting to watch it happen, which is huge. But so is the fact that the black hole is pulling the cloud in at a speed of about 1000 miles per second. And that when the cloud reaches the event horizon it will be heated from 440 degrees to 11 million degrees and explode x-rays all over. Space…amazing.