Today we presented our mid-term presentations which were an interesting way to experience the different ways of thinking of science and art. Each group thought of very different and unique idea that proved to have artistic importance as well as scientific. My group had trouble thinking up a topic in the previous days but finally came up with a ‘cure’ for Sickle-Cell anemia. We discussed how because the cells were shaped in a type of rigid and flat shape, all we had to do was either create ‘more red blood cells and lyse the sickle cells or replace bone marrow to recreate normal red blood cells. Unfortunately, my whole group [being more scientific than artistic] had forgotten anything about the artistic side of this project. When we thought more about our idea, it seemed to fit the “Imagine the Impossible” theme… However, that afternoon, when everyone presented their projects and we saw how creative and interesting each one was, we knew we had to change our idea. When we presented, we were critiqued a lot and I realized that we needed an idea that was artistically unique with a science background. I was the one who described our nanobots to act as a certain enzyme to enhance the lysing of the sickle-cells [very boring indeed].
That night after getting back from the dorm, we all met and furiously brainstormed for a new idea. We came up with a variety of topics that, unfortunately, did not work out or were already formed in some way in the world.
Links:
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Sca/SCA_WhatIs.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle-cell_disease
http://www.sicklecelldisease.org/about_scd/index.phtml
http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/conditions/sickle.html