Shyam Patel Desma9

This week's lectures on space and art were extremely interesting.  The video explaining the powers of ten really puts the size of objects and distance in space into perspective. It is also interesting to see how much more gets added into the picture of space every 10x. The differences between zooming out light-years really gives you some idea about the sheer size of the universe.  When I think of space and the stars I always think about how in the past, before light pollution, people were able to see so many more stars in the sky. I recently was in the desert and finally got to see with my own eyes how many more stars were visible to the eye when in an area without light pollution. One of my biggest dreams in life is to also go see the northern lights where I am able to see the stars fully with the lights contrasting them in the background.  This week's lecture also really brought back my memories of AP US History from high school. The videos showing the space race betwee...

After watching the lectures by Dr. Gimzewski I am fully convinced by what Professor Vesna said in the Intro video. Nanotechnology is going to be the paradigm shift in the 20th century.   How small nano really is.  The beginning of this week's lectures really surprised me a lot because I had no idea that we could even influence technology that small in size. After really grasping the scale of how small 1-100 nanometers really are, I became so curious about how this all worked. What I learned this week was truly amazing.  The art formed by nanoparticles is also highly fascinating, Some of the exciting examples included the old art with the roman cup where nanoparticles were used to change the color of the cup. The geometries of connection in diamond and graphite were also very interesting. Never would I have imagined that the structure of carbon has so much to do with what it creates.  Nanotech and food are also something I never knew about. The example of the bread in...

  This week Professor Vesna focused on the relationship between neuroscience and art. I have long been interested in the brain and the idea of consciousness. The ideas of Freud and Jung are some that I frequently think about because I like to be in control of my mind as much as possible.  The ideas of Franz Joseph Gall, in that mental functions, are located in different areas of the brain are some of the pioneer ideas that have caused us to advance so much in our knowledge of our brains. You hear so often today about people being left-brained and right-brained and while there is much to debate on those topics as well, Gall’s ideas were the foundation to these as well.  One of the things Professor Vesna mentions in the lecture is that 95% of dreams are forgotten. This is very interesting to hear because I have always forgotten the dreams that I have had my entire life and I am not the person that can wake up and write them down. I have researched how to be able to do thing...

On May 7th, I attended a presentation with Ann McCoy again. I thoroughly enjoyed the last event with Ann McCoy and that is why I decided to attend another of hers.  This presentation on Otto Piene was also extremely interesting. Piene, was a founding member of the Zero Group, which was started in Germany post-WWII. His art was focused on using light to project patterns that would move and change. One of his most famous pieces is the Lichtballett.  This was truly fascinating and I can’t imagine how much better it looks in person.  (Screenshot from Color, Light, and Motion - Ann McCoy) One of the other pieces I really loved was the creation by the Pakistani artist Anila Quayyum Agha . I loved the part in the video where the artist says that when you walk into the space you become a part of it. It really is a great example of inspiration from Piene’s work in modern times.  (Screenshot from Color, Light, and Motion - Ann McCoy) After watching this event, I was simply dum...

I think the main thing that this week made me think of was the idea of stem cell research and also GMOs.  For years the idea of stem cell research has been heavily debated because of ethical reasons. My personal views have always been accepting of things like stem cell research because it has the ability to make life better for all people. Stem cell research also has the potential to cure many people of diseases and conditions that have never had a chance to be cured before. This also includes the ability to help create new skin for burn victims, and even with more research, grow tissue/organs like livers for patients in need.  This is also the same thing with GMOs. For years people have been hating on genetically modified organisms because they feel that it is dangerous to us and have been preaching about organic food. While there are benefits to eating organic, the claims have become overblown and the public perception of GMOs has become extremely negative. GMOs have the pot...