WilliamVoDESMA9

This week I really enjoyed learning about the interactions between humanity’s interest in space and culture/popular media. I genuinely enjoyed how our introduction video really framed the history of how mankind has always had a fascination with outer space and the world beyond us. To me, the first thing I think about is how much this has changed throughout history with technology and government support enabling humans to travel to space and capture striking images to share with the world (Vesna 2024 Lecture 5). It’s great to see government support for the arts and sciences (Pell 2014) and it is something that we should never take for granted. Something else I wonder however, is how popular art about space and the stars, planets, and comets have changed given that light pollution from cities has covered our skies up. Today, it is so much more difficult to see the stars than it would have been hundreds of years ago. In that way, I wonder if the arts about space were more accurate than th...

  This week I really enjoyed learning about nanoparticles. My own research in CNSI is based on a core-shell microparticle platform that enables single-cell encapsulation and studies. I thought it was really cool that Dr. Gimzewski dove into the history of nanoparticles and how they have existed in technology and nature for a long time. It’s so interesting to see the science of how making materials into a nanosized portion can yield interesting properties. The one that I found to be most interesting was how inert materials can become catalysts for chemical reactions (Gimzewski 2024 Lecture 3). It was cool to learn about all the different industrial applications of nanoparticles from windows to fabrics. I never knew that nanoparticles were so prevalent in everyday life outside of technology. Image 1: Nanoparticles to Cross Blood-Brain Barrier These properties make it obvious why nanotechnology would be appealing to artists. This week, I also learned that manipulating and rearranging ...

Image 1: Grace and I dancing separately together The event that I attended for this assignment was the Love Machines exhibit at the New Wight Gallery in the Broad Arts Center. I had a lot of fun standing around trying not to look silly as I attempted to understand the art pieces that were around me. Everything was super cool and appealing to the senses. The first piece that caught my attention was Grace and I dancing separately together . I’ve always been super interested in machine learning, particularly its applications in medicine (Deo 2015). The idea of teaching a program and then having it “learn” and improve based on your feedback is so human-like that it's really intriguing. I volunteer at the VA and the veterans tell me about pilot machine learning tools that did a non-invasive skin biopsy to help determine whether their growth was malignant or benign. At Cedars-Sinai, I recently connected with a PI that uses machine learning to look for biomarkers of multiple sclerosis. Fo...

  In our daily lives, we are already associating different neurotransmitters and chemicals with certain behaviors and actions in our body. I enjoyed learning about cocaine and LSD in lecture 3 (Vesna 2024). In CHEM 101: Catalysis in Modern Drug Discovery, I learned about how many drugs originate from plants and other natural products. It’s interesting to think about how drug use has affected artists and their work. Many drugs, if not all drugs, impact the way we see the world by impacting our cognitive function. Thus, they will of course have a role in our production and consumption of artwork.  Image 1: Impulse I became interested in how human cognition has changed over time and found a comprehensive theory known as “Environmental Complexity Thesis” (Godfrey-Smith 2002). ECT describes the environment as posing both challenges and opportunities for cognition to overcome and utilize respectively. It is interesting to view cognition as a “tool-kit” for survival and this aligns w...