Nano+Bio+Art

Today was the last full day of this course, as well as the last day of blogging! This, of course, brings me to tears, but I can find it within myself to look back on the past two weeks, and talk about some of the topics that I enjoyed the most. The visits to the [...]

Today, we started the day with a lecture on optical illusions, and how optical illusions occur because our brain can get confused (1). There are many types of optical illusions, including physiological and cognitive illusions. Physiological illusions are illusions based on the effects of extensive stimulation to a brightness, color, movement, etc. (2, a) Cognitive [...]

Today started out with a lecture from Sarah and Pinar about optics (1). We started out with the basics, talking about the electromagnetic spectrum, the dispersion of light, and translucent, transparent, and opaque light. But what I found to be the most interesting was about bio-optics and bioluminescence (2).  A couple examples of this in [...]

Sunday was a freeeeeeeee day.

Today was a pretty relaxed day, with a couple visits to some museums, as well as an awesome trip to Venice beach. We first went to the California Science Center (a), and it was very notable because of all of its very hands-on exhibits/displays, as well as other exhibits with moving parts (1, b). The [...]

The highlight of the day for me, surprisingly, was our visit to the Getty museum. I am normally not the type of person who is wants to or is willing to suffer through museums, but I really enjoyed the Getty (1). My first thought in seeing my first glimpse of the museum was pure awe, [...]

The day started out with a lecture from Mattia and Rita about the link between color/sound and emotion, and what smell is. Just about everyone can agree that listening to music can make them really pumped up, or happy, or sad, so there obviously is a link between sound and human emotion. Also, whenever people [...]

We started the day off with a lecture from John Carpenter, who used to be a part of the Art|Sci course. He shared with us a recent project that he worked on, which was an immersive and interactive exhibit where “waves” ebbed and flowed around you, and your presence realistically affected the movement of the [...]

Today we started out with a lecture focusing on patterns on animals, and how the patterns we see on the coats and skins of animals aren’t random, but instead serve a specific purpose or function. (1, a) From many thousands of years of genetic variation and various selective pressures, an animal’s skin/fur color and pattern [...]

We started out the day receiving a lecture on waves. http://www1.union.edu/newmanj/lasers/Light%20as%20a%20Wave/standing%20wave2.JPG We began with just general information about waves (such as the wavelength and amplitude of a wave, as well as transverse and longitudinal waves), and moved on to different types of waves (such as mechanical and gravitational waves) and how different people have different definitions [...]

Today we started out just “getting the ball rolling”, and getting introduced to all the leaders and main focuses of our two-week course. Today was definitely a little bit dull (with all the lectures), but meeting all of the leaders, as they are all really enthusiastic about the course and incredibly well-versed in their respective [...]