Our lecture today focused on how science and art lead a symbitic life. This can be seem in new technological inventions and ideas and art. We saw a video about a car show in Japan, showing new cars that can turn with its wheels in place, cars with smaller cars within them, and cars with a robot near the driving wheel that can sense the mood of the driver. There were also cars with a soft outer cover to further protect the driver and passengers during car accidents. These inventions are very artistic, finding ways to make the cars fashionable, comfortable, and desirable. At the same time, the makers of these cars used new technology in order to make this happen. Another example of a creative new invention is a game called Mind Flex. This game is supposedly to control a ball with one’s mind, similar to the “force” characters use in the movies Star Wars. However, I think that the makers of this game should have thought through the game more, since it is pretty obvious to those with even a little understanding that it is air from the game machine that is keeping the ball afloat, and not the power of one’s mind. But I do think that if somehow, it is possible to move things with just a thought, it is a good idea to give the little kids experience in a game before they use it for more serious things. ANother great invention was the idea of a new phone that could do almost anything, was very easy to carry around, and water proof. the only reason one phone is able to do this is because it is built of nanotechnology.
After the lecture, we had a hands-on lab experience with ferrofluids and photo lithography. For the ferrofluids, we mixed FeCl2 and FeCl3 and then dropped in ammonium hydroxide in order to make magnetites. After rinsing many times, we could use a magnet to manipulate the magnetites. Our group was not able to get the results we needed. When finished, the magnetites were supposed to spike up when the magnet was put underneath it, but it didnt. We did not know how it was supposed to look it until we saw a friends experiment. And then we used photo lithography to make a picture of whatever we want on a small tile of copper.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/3174218/The-strange-science-of-Japanese-car-design.html
http://car-holic.blogspot.com/2009/05/japans-big-three-to-debut-cute-cars.html
http://www.ferrotec.com/technology/ferrofluid/
http://renegadefuturist.com/archives/2009/02/27/how-to-make-liquid-magnets-ferrofluids/
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