Nano+Bio+Art

We dedicated the day to project preparations.  While we put together our powerpoints according to the template that Adam gave us, the counselors were walking around, ready to help us when we needed.  Although the template was confusing at first with a lot of terms that we did not understand, with the help of the counselors, [...]

Today, we had lectures from Sarah and Pinar, Samuel Sanchez, Gil Kuno, Aydogan Ozcan, and Johanna Reed We started the day off with a presentation on optical illusions given by Sarah and Pinar.  The effectiveness of optical illusions depend mostly on the ability of the brain to recognize familiar patterns and make assumptions based on information [...]

Today, we first listened to a lecture given by Miu and Romie, then went to the Getty Museum after lunch, and finally did a bioluminescence lab at night. During Miu and Romie’s lecture, which was about using biomolecules as nanomachines, we saw many ways to use organic compounds (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids) to create [...]

Today, we listened to lectures from Mattia, Rita, Jim Gimzewski, and Pinar.  We also participated in a workshop, where we made our own solar cells. The first lecture by Mattia and Rita was about the senses of sight, sound, and smell, and how they relate to the actions of humans. Although the interpretation by the brain [...]

Today, we went on field trips to the California Science Center, the Getty Museum, and finally Venice Beach. The first place we visited was the California Science Museum.  Although I have visited that place many times before in my life, I was surprised when I entered the museum, because it was nothing like I remembered.  There [...]

Today, we listened to two guest lecturers, prepared for and presented our midterm projects, and then watched final presentations made by the DESMA groups. For the lectures, although the one given by John Carpenter was interesting, I was surprised at the appeal and the complexity of the Social Sqncr project, made by Bruce Dummond and Nick [...]

After the daily video of “Look Around You”, we started the day with a lecture about optics.  Starting from the basics of light and the electromagnetic spectrum, we went further into this topic, first discussing some equations that relate the frequency, energy, and wavelength of light waves. (1)  After that, we looked at practical uses of [...]

Today, we engaged in a variety of activities, just like the day before. To start off, we watched another episode of “Look Around You”, then watched a lecture on art and the patterns that we can find in nature.  We saw that because of evolution, many organisms look like the way they do for a specific [...]

During our second day of this program, we were as busy as the first, although in many other ways.  We did have lectures, but today, we focused more on tours and hands-on activities, far different from the introduction-oriented schedule we had the day before. Firstly, we listened to a lecture about waves,  starting with a basic [...]

In our first day of the Sci/Art Nanolab program, we spent a lot of the time going through introductions of various things, from counselors to topics we will cover during these next two weeks.  When I signed up for this program, I thought that I knew a decent amount about nanotechnology, but today’s lectures showed me [...]