Nano+Bio+Art

Today was the last day of the program before our final presentations. The entire day was allotted to preparing our finals. My group members and I finished designing our product, the Dream Keyper because of its ability to record and project people’s dreams. Because my task was to create and structure the powerpoint, I was able [...]

Today Sara and Pinar challenged us to find an optical illusion and to explain its significance. The image below is an optical illusion of the American flag. Stare at the flag for one minute and then look at the wall or a white sheet. The way this works is that your eyes see color in measures [...]

Today Miu and Romie challenged us to find out why graphite could conduct electricity and diamond could not, while they were both crystalline forms of carbon. I was interested that the answer lay in the movement of electrons. In diamond, all four outer electrons of each carbon atom are shared between the atoms through covalent bonds. [...]

Today Rita and Mattia gave us a lecture regarding Biowaves. I was especially intrigued with the inherent connection between human emotion and color. The relationship between emotion and color arises from people’s color preferences; there is evidence that color preference may be culturally-based. For example, the colors red and blue were the most preferred colors by [...]

Visiting the California Science Center compelled me to think about the importance of science in the ecosystem and how the whole arrangement in itself, is a beautiful piece of art. I tried to make connections between the animals, their habitats, and how we humans play a role in the system’s entirety. I’ve come to understand that [...]

Today were given a lecture from guest speaker John Carpenter. Carpenter was a former instructor at the Sci|Art NanoLab and it was a fascinating experience learning about his new profession.  He introduced David Kremers, a media instructor at Caltech, whom he worked closely with. Kremers and his colleague created stimulating media effects using a process called [...]

Today was the fourth day of the Sci|Art NanoLab summer program. The session began with a presentation on the optical properties of materials, solely confined to the visible electromagnetic spectrum. Although I am familiar with the concept, I am still intrigued by the process of visible light penetrating a prism, causing the light to refract, and [...]

Today was the third day of Sci|Art NanoLab summer program. The session began with an intriguing lecture about nature’s ability to create complex structures and patterns from simple pieces. Although I had already ascertained that these patterns were not created by random arrangements, I learnt that they were determined by genetic switches and reaction-diffusion systems. Simply said, an [...]

  Today is the second day of the Sci|Art NanoLab summer program. Rita and Mattia gave us a fascinating presentation on the physics of waves: an oscillation in which energy, not matter, is transported. The picture below exemplifies a mechanical wave, in which case the fans, who serve as the medium, propagate the energy throughout the stadium. [...]

Today was the first day of the Sci|Art NanoLab summer program. We were introduced to the intriguing study of nanotechnology: the harnessing of scientific material at an inconceivably small scale and applying it to the present society and culture. The following link gives further explanation of nanotechnology and its use for enhancing the properties of certain [...]