Richard Wathen combines a cool aesthetic, a deft touch, and an air of mystery in his paintings. He has been described as "touching greatness". More of his work can be seen at the Max Wigram site.

"Nature by Numbers" is a lovely video inspired, we are told, by "numbers, geometry, and nature" and created by Cristobal Vila. (Thanks to DZ for this one.)

A MutaMorphosis Conference was held in Prague, Czech Republic, to consider the theme of "extreme and hostile environments". One of the more interesting papers to come out of this gathering was titled "We Are Extremophiles" by Louis Bec. Bec describes us as "predatory extremophiles": to quote him, "We are also being tormented by the bulimic greed for immoderately accumulating knowledge". More about Bec can be seen at the V2 Institute for the Unstable Media website. The conference also included a number of fascinating videos.

Margaret Wertheim talks about "Mathematics as Poetic Enchantment" in her TED video. Born in Australia, she has been writing about science and culture both by herself and with her twin sister. Her book "Pythagoras' Trousers" won the Templeton Book Award for Science and Religion.

In light of Google's withdrawal from China, it is interesting to note that the country's first Twitter novel has just started publication on the Net. Called "2020", it will only be available on Twitter and will have no more than 20 novel-tweets each day.

Restoration experts in Florence, Italy, have used ultra-violet rays to uncover paintings by Giotto that had lain unseen for centuries. While you are at the site, be sure to view the slide show of the discovery.

Macoto Murayama creates photographic illustrations of botannical objects using Photoshop, 3ds Max, a microscope and magnifying glass.

The Cynthia Corbett Gallery in the United Kingdom has curated a show called "Young Masters". Available online are images from the exhibition along with the catalog introduction and curatorial statement.

ARTslant magazine has profiled paintings by Ljubomir Simonovski of Macedonia. The artist's canvases are bold and dramatic and earned him a Showcase Winner award.

Samuel Bianchini has created an internet artwork from constantly changing keyboard strokes. Called "All Over", it is a fascinating demonstration of data input based on world stock markets. (Be sure to click on the image to see the process in operation.)

Scientists, and specifically paleontologists, have discovered the presence of colored feathers on the oldest feathered dinosaur. According to Wired Science, the creature thrived in Northeastern China roughly 160 million years ago. Analysis of fossil feathers suggest that the feathers might have been used to send signals as well as to fly.