iPad apps, literary journals, science festivals

In a somewhat circuitous way, Dr. Sacks’s Uncle Tungsten has inspired a hot new iPad app by Theodore Gray, of Periodic Table fame. It’s a gorgeous new way to enjoy your elements.

(Prefer your minerals in book form? Theo’s got that covered, too, in The Elements. If you have your lab goggles and blowtorch at the ready, also check out his Mad Science.)

Event-wise, dozens of way cool talks at the World Science Festival will turn New York City into the world capital of science the first weekend of June. For tickets to events, including a conversation on face-blindness between Oliver Sacks, Chuck Close, and Robert Krulwich, check out the WSF site.

On the paper-and-ink front, we’re happy to announce Dr. Sacks’s debut as a contributor to Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, on newsstands now. His piece, “Colorado Springs Revisited,” is in great company–this issue also includes work by Richard Ford, Louis Menand, Morris Dickstein, Rachel Dickinson, Ryan Flaherty, and Dennis Lang.  And that’s only the nonfiction; there are lots more poets, artists, and writers to boot!