Event 2: The Tech Museum

For my second event, I visited the Tech Museum in San Jose. 

Proof of attendance

 

A "super schnoz" indeed

An exhibit named “Sensing with a Sniff” caught my eye. An engineer named Billy Boyle, driven to develop cheaper and easier cancer-detecting technology after his wife underwent emergency surgery for advanced colon cancer, turned to the tools he had on hand. His company, Owlstone, produced chemical sensor chips to find bombs and toxins. His curiosity piqued by a hound’s ability to sniff out cancer, he and his colleagues developed a new chemical sensor, which “uses a low-cost silicon chip to mimic a dog’s super schnoz.”  The sensor detects known biomarkers selective to colon cancer. Additionally, this sensor can be programmed to recognize a slew of diseases, from tuberculosis to asthma. The company is working on mobile, affordable sensors intended for hospitals and clinics. Inspired by the natural world around him, Boyle found the impetus for a project that may save numerous lives in the future – and numerous dollars, as well.

A schematic for 3D bioprinting

Another engaging exhibit was titled “The Perfect Fit,” centered around the use of 3D bioprinting for organ replacements. Through the past few weeks, we’ve explored how art and science have intersected to create a personalization of technology, a concept applicable here. At any given time, over 100,000 people wait for organ replacements in the US alone. Much like Gutenberg’s press brought together existing technologies and added innovations that revolutionized the west, scientists are now exploring the use of 3D printers for a similar effect. By using human cellular material as “ink,” a bioprinter can create layers upon layers of cells that bind together to create tissue. A scaffold is used for the cells to link and grow on. Currently, scientists are attempting to refine their technique in order to print new livers. 

The Nanopatch alongside a needle, for comparison

A third exhibit, “Safety in a Sticker,” demonstrated the use of a silicon Nanopatch 1 square centimeter in size to deliver vaccines, as opposed to needles or refrigeration of samples, directly related to our recent discussion of nanotech. This device targets immune cells just under the skin, as the silicon square is lined with spikes coated in the vaccine. Designed to circumvent a rather common fear of needles in the patient population, this patch could potentially revolutionize the delivery of vaccines, although doctors' reactions to it are as of yet unclear. 

Overall, it was an incredibly interesting visit! 

Space + Art

UCLA's image of magnetic fields

Any interest in space (and we all have one, there’s no use denying that three-hour argument over whether aliens exist) comes with a sprinkling of science and a healthy dose of imagination. As a neuroscience major, poking through the Basic Plasma Science Facility at UCLA’s website seems like a derailment into Star Trek-like jargon, accompanied by the requisite alien shapes and swathes of color. A “colliding laser plasma experiment” seems to be more a product of scientists drunk on their own power than anything else, and yet there are years of physics and mathematics behind the project. The explanations on the website make about as much sense to me as multivariable calculus ever did, but there’s no denying the usefulness of science when attempting to go where no one has gone before.

Chesley Bonestell's 1944 painting of Saturn

Perhaps the earliest exploration of putting art in space came in 1993, when Arthur Woods created a sculpture entitled Cosmic Dancer and blasted it off to the Russian Mir space station, in the hopes of understand art’s place in space. It provided amusement to the astronauts, who watched it tumble about in the weightlessness of the deep dark, proving that there is indeed a space for art in space. In a similar vein, the MARS PATENT is “an interplanetarian project” that uses a “high reality machine” that lets users “send” their artwork into space, to admire the juxtaposition of Mars’ environment with the art they selected.  Interestingly, the zero-gravity exhibition Dancing on the Ceiling showcased the work of several artists who took advantage of recently developed technology (or swimming pools) to experience weightlessness for themselves before replicating that same sensation in their art. Traditional mediums have been used to produce space-related art, of course. Chesley Bonestell, who died in 1986, painted arresting landscapes of space, many of which were used as cover art for space-themed magazines or novels, such as War of the Worlds, published in 1953.

An insightful quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

In their turn, novels, television, and films have embraced the vast opportunities offered by man’s exploration of space with open arms. In my favorite space-related novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams seized the day and rattled off line after line of out-of-this-world humor while making pointed statements about the human condition – and humanity’s place in the world – after aliens dropped by and blew up Earth. (“Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?”) In Lilo and Stitch, our planet is revealed to be a breeding ground for the universe’s study of mosquito populations, with poignant truths about family and kindness neatly slipped in sideways. Whether it’s to examine our humanity more closely or just search for some laughs, the galaxies above, below, and around us may in fact hold the answer.

Sources:

1)   “Basic Plasma Science Facility at UCLA.” University of California, Los Angeles. Web.

2)   Woods, Arthur. “Cosmic Dancer.” Cosmicdancer.com. Web.

3)   “The Mars Patent.” Mars-patent.org. Web.

4)   Bonestell, Chesley. “Chesley Bonestell.” Bonestell.org. Web.

5)   Forde, Kathleen. “Dancing on the Ceiling.” Zerogravity.empac.rpi.edu. Web.

Images:

1)   Phillips, Tom and Kelly Oakes. “’Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ Quotes as Motivational Posters.” Buzzfeed, 2014. Web.

2)   “Basic Plasma Science Facility at UCLA.” University of California, Los Angeles. Web.

3)   Bonestell, Chesley. “Chesley Bonestell.” Bonestell.org. Web.

Nanotech + Art

Much like topics from other weeks, the connection of nanotech to art isn’t necessarily a difficult one to make. For something that is inherently very scientific, it’s easy to see how nanotech can be used to produce art – or at least, to produce something beautiful. In his TED Talk, Paul Rothemund introduces “DNA origami,” which stems from the potential cracked open by molecular programming. Being able to understand the structure of DNA gives us the ability to change the folding pattern of the helix or the code it holds. He mentions a graduate student in China, Lulu Qian, who wrote her own software and produced a DNA origami rendition of China, complete with Taiwan. All using nanotech – or “nano-artwork.” The largest limitation here is the strand of DNA accessible: “to build a human from DNA origami, you need a long strand that’s 10 trillion trillion bases long. That’s three light years’ worth of DNA.”

Nanoessence, by Thomas and Raxworthy

In the exhibit “Art in the Age of Nanotechnology”, Paul Thomas and Kevin Raxworthy presented Nanoessence, an “interactive audio-visual installation where the viewer interfaces with the visual and sonic presentation through breath.” Aside from Biblical links between breath and life, this project also takes the most primitive of biological instincts and transforms it into a tangible form of art, something made possible by the leaps taken recently in nanotech.

McDevitt's depiction of the smartphone profram

Nanotechnology also brings drastic changes to the medical field. The McDevitt Research Group is working on the p-BNC, or Programmable Bio-Nano-Chip System, which analyzes “biomarkers found in bodily fluids and relays complex test results to consumers through an intuitive smart phone interface.  The device uses a network of nanometer-scale fibers in a polymer membrane, and fluorescent signaling from nanoparticles to detect and measure biomarkers within a small chip. Similarly, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed nanoparticles that use bismuth and a molecular targeting system to hunt down blood clots and bind them, making them visible to a CT scanner.

An image from MIT of nanoparticles targeting tumors

Then again, medical technologies that rely on nanoparticles or (especially) embedded chips, may run into privacy problems as well, akin to the scandal in 2014 when Google servers had been uploading England patient data without their consent. While such kinks need to be ironed out, and comprehensively addressed to ensure that only data the patient has agreed to release is being acquired, there is no denying that nanoparticles are headed for a bright future.

Sources:

1)   Rothemund, Paul. “DNA Folding, In Detail.” TED, February 2008. Web.

2)   Thomas, Paul and Kevin Raxworthy. “Nanoessence.” Art in the Age of Nanotechnology, 2014. Web. 

3)   McDevitt, John T. “P-BNC: The Programmable Bio-Nano-Chip, A Flexible Platform for Translational Bioscience.” Rice University, Departments of Bioengineering and Chemistry, 2013, Web.

4)   Strait, Julia Evangelou. “New Nanoparticles Make Blood Clots Visible.” Washington University in St. Louis, 2 February 2011. Web.

5)   Ramesh, Randeep. “NHS England Patient Data ‘Uploaded to Google Servers,’ Tory MP Says.” The Guardian, 3 March 2014. Web.

Images:

1)   Thomas, Paul and Kevin Raxworthy. “Nanoessence.” Art in the Age of Nanotechnology, 2014. Web. 

2)   McDevitt, John T. “P-BNC: The Programmable Bio-Nano-Chip, A Flexible Platform for Translational Bioscience.” Rice University, Departments of Bioengineering and Chemistry, 2013, Web.

3)   Trafton, Anne. “Targeted Nanoparticles Show Success In Clinical Trials.” MIT News Office, 2012. Web.

Neuroscience + Art

Ramon y Cajal: the cerebellar cortex

I approached this section with Ramon y Cajal in mind. Mentioned in practically every neuroscience textbook, he used his childhood ambition of becoming an artist to render clear drawings of neurons he visualized under microscopes using the silver nitrate Golgi stain. This was exceptionally useful, as from the outside the brain appears to be an undifferentiated mass.

The study of consciousness, however, is far from clear-cut. Roger Penrose, a mathematical physicist, approached the neurosciences – and consciousness itself – from a mathematical perspective, trying to fit quantum theory and mathematical theorems to current understanding of the brain to produce an idea of consciousness. His central argument is that “there has to [be a] bridge between quantum and classical levels of behavior.” He suggests that the microtubules in the brain contain such quantum-level activity, and may be a starting point for exploring this further. These ideas met both support and opposition. Francisco Varela declares there is not a “shred of evidence that quantum processes are relevant to describing the brain,” but a 2014 discovery of “quantum vibrations in microtubules” inside neurons corroborates this theory, suggesting that brain waves derive from these vibrations.

Gregory Bateson

In Mind and Nature, Bateson specifies the nature of Penrose’s problem. His chief concern is that we have lost the ability to view objects and ideas in relationship to each other – the “Great Chain of Being” has been lost, and with it an entire paradigm. But he is more specific about the problem at hand: “Our loss of the sense of aesthetic unity was an epistemological mistake…Logic and quantity turn out to be inappropriate devices…The behavioral sciences lack any reduced model which would do for biology and psychiatry what the Newtonian particle did for physics.” He’s right, too – in all of my courses, my professors have emphasized that the study of the brain and its processes is still very much underway.

A schematic of what the brain does

Research has proven numerous phenomena related to the brain and mind. Meditation increases gray matter, also increasing emotional stability and general positivity. In his neuroscience course on cognition, Hakwan Lau presented competing theories of consciousness, such as the Global Workspace Theory, Local Recurrency Theory, and Higher-Order Theory, which seek to understand the relationship between attention and consciousness. But the evidence is inconclusive. All we truly know about consciousness is that we know little. To move forward, combining Bateson’s emphasis on aesthetic unity with the scientific navigation of the brain may prove worthwhile.

Sources:

1)   Penrose, Roger. “Consciousness Involves Noncomputable Ingredients.” Edge.org, Web.

2)   Elsevier. "Discovery of quantum vibrations in 'microtubules' inside brain neurons supports controversial theory of consciousness." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 January 2014. Web.

3)   Gregory Bateson. “Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity.” Oikos.org, Web.

4)   Wheeler, Mark. “How to Build a Bigger Brain.” UCLA Newsroom, 2009. Web.

5)   Lau, Hakwan. “M101C: Final Week – Consciousness.” 2016. Web.

6)   Bentivoglio, Marina. “Life and Discoveries of Santiago Ramon y Cajal.” Nobelprize.org, 1998. Web.

Images:

1)   Bentivoglio, Marina. “Life and Discoveries of Santiago Ramon y Cajal.” Nobelprize.org, 1998. Web.

2)   “Introducing a Key Scholar: Gregory Bateson.” Storify.com, Web.

3)   “How Mind-Boggling Brain Research Is.” Parentmap.com, Web.

Biotech + Art

Eduardo Kac and the GFP bunny

As a neuroscience major, I’m familiar with transgenics and mutation, although not from an artistic standpoint. The first resource I opened was Eduardo Kac’s GFP bunny, the famous albino rabbit that glows green under blue light due to the addition of jellyfish genes to her own genetic code. Taking advantage of the remarkable growth of the biotech field, Kac created a work of “transgenic art.” He adds that the bunny ought to be appreciated first and foremost for her individual nature, and for her intrinsic worth – to be viewed as more than a mutated rabbit. 

Often referred to as the “mad scientist of MIT,” Joe Davis has produced some unprecedented work. He reduced a map of the Milky Way to a sequence of 3,867 base pairs and encoding it into a mouse ear, combining the mathematics of the schematics of the galaxy with the biology that dictates how DNA is structured. Similarly to Kac, he has used transgenics to his artistic advantage.

Monsanto's hotly debated GM seeds

Exploring Seed Magazine’s articles, however, was extremely different. GM foods are a familiar topic, the debate over whether they ought to be sold at all centering around the lack of scientific understanding of how they may affect the human body in years to come. Because of the “bag-tag” system born from the corporatization of food by companies such as Monsanto, scientists have found that their research is now “subject to company approval,” clipping their wings and making it harder for them to research GM crops. This has environmental consequences as well – researching glyphosate or other herbicides used by these companies has become just as difficult. Additionally, the boundary between food and drugs is vague. Many foods contain transmitters that can be stimulants or depressants, such as caffeine and alcohol, and many have the potential to be addictive. Should every food be regulated just as heavily as known “drugs”?

Mel Chin's Revival Field environmental piece

Revival Field is an apt closing, an artistic yet scientific exploration of whether we have the ability to heal the earth humanity has ravaged over the past decades. I think that art using biotechnology should have more stringent restrictions than for scientists in industry or academia, simply because the scientists aim to obtain treatments to various diseases through their work, and sometimes inflict unavoidable pain or distress upon test subjects to do so. The pursuit of art lacks the same justifying weight, and should be monitored more closely for it.

Sources:

1)   Chin, Mel. “Revival Field.” Revival Field – Mel Chin. N.p., 1991. Web.

2)   Wenk, Gary. “This Is your Brain on Food.” Seed Magazine, 2016. Web.

3)   Stutz, Bruce. “Wanted: GM Seeds for Study.” Seed Magazine, 2016. Web.

4)   “Genesthetics: Molecular Biology and Microbiology in the Arts.” Geneticsandculture.com. Web.

5)   Kac, Eduardo. “GFP Bunny.” Ekac.org, Web.

Images:

1)   Kac, Eduardo. “GFP Bunny.” Ekac.org, Web.

2)  Chin, Mel. “Revival Field.” Revival Field – Mel Chin. N.p., 1991. Web.

3)  Gillam, Carey. “Monsanto Wins Lawsuit Filed By Farmers Worried About Seed Contamination.” The Huffington Post, 2013. Web.