Dear Readers,
I will be on “vacation” (workation) for the next week or so, so my posts may be a little sporadic. If you have any requests for posts you’d like to see, please leave a comment and let me know.
In the meantime, I leave you with a gallery of science-related body ink (the previous post that looked at tattoos were definitely more “tech” related, but these are dealing with all kinds of fun scientific concepts). Enjoy.
Where we think about colors in our brains changes the more we learn about them. At least that’s according to this study that was released in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The UC Berkeley researchers said that in infants the right side of the brain processes colors (often considered the “creative side”), but as soon as we learn words associated with those colors, it switches over to the left side of the brain (the “analytical side”). The researchers said the same thing happens when babies and grown-ups look at dogs and cats.
Typically the left brain is the “dominant” side of the brain in humans (we do more processing with it). However, I wonder if there is a difference at all in people who have a dominant right brain (left-handed people, people with brain injuries, etc.).
*Cue ” The Hills are Alive”*
I don’t normally paste product announcements disguised as news stories into my blog, but a) I’m feeling lazy, and b) it’s an interesting enough story that I think it’s worth it. And besides, c) I edited it for brevity and newsiness, so I’m not that lazy (although I couldn’t do much to un-Germanize the translation without completely re-writing the story)! Behold:
MAZeT and JENOPTIK are partners in the project “Luce. The Sound of Colors”
With JENCOLOR color sensors, Jena-based companies are delivering the innovative and unique technology which will make the project possible with previously unknown color impressions.
Dr. Fred Grunert, managing director of MAZeT GmbH, and Dr. Michael Mertin, Chairman of the Executive Board at JENOPTIK AG, signed the sponsorship contract for the project “Luce. The Sound of Colors” recently. MAZeT and Jenoptik are the main sponsors of the concerts and the associated installation in the Jena Volkshaus building.
“Luce. The Sound of Colors” unites science, business and art in a unique way. The light-space installation is being designed by the renowned Stuttgart artist rosalie. An exhibition accompanying the project and on the work of rosalie will be open to visitors from mid-December in the JENOPTIK AG gallery opposite the Volkshaus.
MAZeT GmbH is supplying the technological basis for the project, thus making possible the realization of Alexander Scriabin’s almost 100-year-old vision of linking music with colors in his Prometheus Symphony. Due to insufficient technical means, suitable color effects could not be fully realized during his lifetime (1872-1915).
The color sensors developed by MAZeT and manufactured by Jenoptik make possible a previously unattainable homogeneity and brilliance of the freely-composed play of color with light-emitting diodes to the music of Scriabin, Igor Stravinsky and Georg Friedrich Haas. The musical works will be translated, programmed and recorded into a color composition by the artist rosalie parallel to the music. The Jena color sensor technology guarantees that every color which belongs to a particular tone is always perceived in the same way – regardless of the brightness of the surroundings.
“MAZeT’s sponsorship of the Luce project should impart the beauty and emotionality of technology and awaken interest among young people in a technology-oriented training”, says Dr. Fred Grunert, managing director of MAZeT GmbH.
JENCOLOR color sensors recognize and measure properties of surface colors of active light sources. The color sensitivity of the sensors corresponds to that of the human eye.
In illumination applications, LEDs in combination with optics and sensor technology take on completely new dimensions. Color, brightness and light distribution prove to be seemingly boundless. Among others, the systems will be used in innovative lighting systems which can automatically adjust themselves to brightness conditions. On large illuminated panels, a high uniformity of brightness and light color is attained via the technology.
In the future, airplanes from renowned manufacturers will thus be fitted with modules for LED illumination systems.
I just have to plug a recent project I worked on: The SPIE Art Show and silent auction! SPIE is “an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light.” They are best known for their huge international conferences devoted to photonics and other studies of light, but also produce books, journals, classes, and other events.
But who are the people behind SPIE? Who are the staff who devote themselves 40+ hours a week to creating these light-based event? I work there, and I didn’t even know. So, I figured, what better way to learn about my coworkers than through their art, how they express themselves, how they spend the other few hours of wakefulness not bringing light information to the elite masses. I and my hard-working team invited all staff and family members to submit a piece of artwork or craft to the show.
We had a great turnout of artwork, and a wide variety (photos below), from knitted baby caps to milagros to an “installation piece.”
Most of the pieces submitted were sold as part of a fundraiser for the local non-profit Mother Baby Center. The MBC’s goal is to support and provide services to soon-to-be and new parents, especially when they can’t get services elsewhere, from doctor referrals to nursing classes.
How does this event relate to my blog? I think a lot of people’s assumptions are that a) those who are interested in science aren’t also interested in the arts; b) the faces we see in one setting – school, work, church – are the entirety of that individual, and c) that art is not a legitimate or substandard use of time, or at least not appreciated by anyone but the artist. I hope this event proved all these assumptions wrong, and hopefully by writing about this event it will inspire other organizations to do the same.
For the record, and possibly as another incentive to organizations, we ended up raising a substantial amount of money, enough that the organization is already talking of doing it again next year.
A company in Japan has developed software so that starving (or cheap) musicians can now perform music on their cell phones. I could only find a video of it, and frankly I think the actual performing of the cell phones looks a little cheesy, but hey, if it works…
This is wonderful! The Ottowa Citizen recently reported on a growing trend of adding literature studies into medical school and other non-humanities programs. Many literary greats have tackled medicine and science in their works, and now modern medical students are wrestling with them. After incorporating the literary studies, many schools have seen improvements in performance of the young doctors during their rounds. The benefits have also been seen in Economics programs.
As the article points out, in a way it is sad that we need to “prove” the usefulness of literature, or justify its inclusion in science studies, but if that’s what it takes to get people reading and thinking abstractly and creatively, so be it.
Today features a small smattering of samples on the subject of industrial design.
The first is a profile on pioneering industrial designer Raymond Loewy. Loewy is pretty much THE industrial designer of the first half of the 20th century, from Art Deco to cars to trains. You can check out some highlights of his work in this slideshow.
As a sort of state-of-the-art comparison, these are the latest creations spawned from Western Washington University’s class that challenges burgeoning industrial design students to make new stuff out of old stuff. The best products are sold at a local store (and online!). I have seen some imaginative, great-looking, and very functional products come out of this particular program, and I’m sure there are similar programs out there like this.
I suspect that when most people think about Industrial Design they think of those car commercials in the 80s where there are a bunch of people with glasses and labcoats shaving clay off of a sort-of-car-shaped block. And while most industrial design programs are housed in a university’s Arts program and probably more competitive to get into, in today’s programs there is quite a bit of science that goes into figuring out how to create an airplaine chair that is actually comfortable to sit in for more than 20 minutes, or a refridgerator designed with the freezer on the bottom so your Thanksgiving turkey doesn’t fall out onto your head (or your foot. Ouch). Just some food for thought.
In honor of our new President-elect: Nanobama! Michigan scientist John Hart grew nanofibers in the shape of a oft-copied portrait of Barack Obama. This guy loves Obama so much, he has created an entire series of Democratic portaits. The article actually provides step-by-step illustrations on how to make your own nanobama, or other portrait. Now all you need is access to carbon nanotubes and a lithography lab.
This is a slideshow featuring the remastered images of specimens taken by John Muir during his trips all over America and Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Bonnie Gisel and Stephen Joseph worked with modern digital imaging (and Photoshop) to re-colorize the photos of Muir’s specimens to show the original colors, take out the tape marks, etc. Some of these are just incredible to see, for one thing to see the before and after images, and for another just to imagine what it was like for Muir to be out in the middle of nowhere picking odd wild flowers and plants that few had seen before. These are all available in the book Nature’s Beloved Son.
Perfect for a rainy, gray Friday (at least where I’m at): a paper airplane competition. It just happened last weekend as part of a competition put on by New York City’s non-profit Public Art Fund. Categories included most beautiful, farthest flying and most spectacular failure (I hope nobody deliberately tried for that one). People who couldn’t make it to New York were able to send instructions and have a proxy fly their plane for them. How cool!
They also have a book about how to make your own paper airplanes.
