Tattoo ink, Dijon mustard, neuroscience art & more
Interesting links from the overlap of science, art and culture
Chemists in the US are working on a project to analyse and catalog the ingredients of popular tattoo inks. These inks are not as strictly regulated by the FDA as you might expect from something that’s injected in the body, and the research project has already uncovered a few concerning compounds, such as azo dyes that could convert to cancer-causing molecules in response to light or bacteria.
“Every time we looked at one of the inks, we found something that gave me pause,” said lead researcher John Swierk.
For more, read my coverage of the story on Forbes. (But note that the researchers’ website mentioned in the article is currently down)
💡Interesting links
Why there's no 'Dijon' in Dijon mustard, by Emily Monaco for BBC World’s Table
See the top entries in the art of neuroscience competition, by Fionna M.D. Samuels and Liz Tormes in Scientific American
This stunning AI-generated picture won a fine arts competition — and human artists were not happy at all, by Tibi Puiu for ZME Science
How our brains cope with speaking more than one language, by Nicole Chang for BBC Future
Neuroscientists want to make music science studies more diverse, by me for Forbes.com
Welcome to Planet B. The Ars Electronica festival is on from September 7 to 11 in Linz, Austria
🔍 [DATE CHANGE] Online training: Clever search methods for Google and beyond
Sometimes people ask me where I find ideas for my articles or for this newsletter. Well, I’m going to be revealing one of my secrets in an upcoming online training! On October 28 (new date!) I’m presenting a “Fiver Friday” webinar (lunchtime for the UK/Europe, early morning for East Coast North Americans), in which I show you some clever online search tricks. And yes, that’s related to how I find Mixture topics, but if you want to know exactly how, you’ll have to sign up!