Day 7th

By Gabriela Rosales | Published: July 17, 2009

Ahhh. So tired. We are currently watching Bladerunner. This is one hella of a long movie. argh argh im cold by the way. So what did we do today? Ohhh the morning lecture was so much fun. I learned quite a bit of information.  What caught my attention was the genetically modified food. A lot ofrestaurants I have seen have this but not until today did I learn what this meant.  So what are the dangers of this genetically modified food that sometimes we eat?

Enviromentalist would say that, it is unhealthy for the enviroment. (Well now adays, isnt everything just about as unhealthy for the enviroment?)

Apparently it has some sort of human health risks. (A lot of things do though.)

Comida with GMO’s brings an economical concern to the market! (We are in a overall economical crisis though).

Another thing that I got interested in was how food affects the life expectancy of a person.  From what I researched, according to 2000 research, Japanese people have the longest life expectancy. Over the years this has increased due to better lifestyle and different ways of living.  The way that food and everything else is affecting our lifes is pretty amazing.

The expectancy of life is depended on the conditions of the country. According to The Global Education Project, United States, along with Canada, Australia and England have some of the largest living conditions in the whole world.

http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/gm/

http://www.sirc.org/gate/gm_food.html

http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php

http://www.eufic.org/article/en/page/RARCHIVE/expid/review-diet-lifestyle-life-expectancy/

http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/Kwa-Men/Life-Expectancy.html

http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org/earth/human-conditions.php

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Finals: Nano Monuments (Lily Moss&Edward Kehoe)

By Lily | Published: July 17, 2009

Lily thought of the idea of nano monuments. She researched famous monuments and statues as well as shapes/structures. She designed how the structure would look on the outside and the mock up photos to how the pieces would look in a museum, on a desk, ect. She also made the Powerpoint.

Edward created the inner works of the structure and what it would be made up of. He made the intro video, contributed to the powerpoint.designed the sketches.Cited sources for reference page. Wrote the presentation script.

Everything else was brainstorming, discussing, and understanding each other.

Posted in final PPT/KEY template, Student Blogs Group X | Comments closed

final reflections

By lucygao | Published: July 17, 2009

It’s been a tiring two weeks, but I guess as a whole, it’s been well worth it.
I’ve accomplished many things all at the same time–participating in this program has helped me knock down numerous birds with one stone. Bird bowling.

In any case, it started with my being able to visit UCLA and live in the dorms like a regular college student. The experience was one I’d been searching for a long while. First off it gave me a look into the lives of college students. The freedom, the food, and the friends were remarkable!

Now in my descriptions, I’m going to start off with the beginning. For almost all of summer, I was waiting for this program. I had no idea what to expect, and to tell you the truth, I was not too excited about participating in some lousy, crazily expensive program that was extremely broad and vague and so obscurely described in the course description. But at the time I had applied, I was out of choices, having been rejected by the one other program I applied to and forced to find extremely late deadlined programs.

When it was decided that I would attend this UCLA program, I wasn’t looking forward to the making new friends process. Even with a back-at-home-friend coming to the program with me, I thought it obviously necessary to meet new people. However, I didn’t want to put on a fake and happy smile at all those around me, just for the sake of attracting new friends.

But in the end, it worked out much better than I thought. I didn’t feel forced to meet people fakely. It was an unexpectedly natural process, when I was casually myself and met people who exactly fit the niche of people that I love to hang out with.

From watching FMA at night to playing DDR in the morning. From games of racket ball in the gym to binging on buffet-style dorm food. From amazing lab visits to being immersed in all sorts of different fields of science. From Children of Men to Harry Potter. From an inimitable and enjoyable experience to a deep submersion into further knowledge. My experience here at Sci|Art Nanolab has been one of the best of my summers.





http://artsci.ucla.edu/summer/index.html

http://artsci.ucla.edu/summer/about.html#objective

Posted in Student Blog Group Z | Leave a comment

The First Friday

By lucygao | Published: July 17, 2009

Today started out with a lecture from Victoria Vesna.  She talked about art and how it had influenced her life, taking her places all over the world to pursue different ideas.  Some of her works seemed pretty revolutionary to me because I had never seen anything like them before in any museum that I had gone to.  What I particularly like about her work was the fact that it was using these new concepts to reinforce a certain theme that had already existed in art previously- especially in spiritual works coming from the far east, including the mandalas made by Tibetan monks. This theme, is about being able to introspect and become conscious of yourself as a part of the world around you. This was really an inspiring topic to me- this is truly the kind of art I enjoy the most.

Perpetuating the creative feel of the day we got to go and see the projects that the DESMA students had created.  Their art was pretty impressive to me and made me want to take a course in design as well. I have always been  interested in computer science and the creation of video games so this type of thing always appealed to me in the past.  For awhile I was even pursuing this topic as a potential career choice, but somehow high school had taken me in a different direction.
It was pretty impressive to get to hear about the projects though, and listening to the students speak gave me a lot of ideas and spurred my imagination.
 
http://www.animationarena.com/video-game-design-articles.html
http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/biography/complete.php
http://www.bodiesinc.ucla.edu/
http://www..location1.org/victoria-vesna-nano-mandala/
http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/articles/becomeavideogamedesigner.htm

Posted in Student Blog Group Z | Leave a comment

7/16/09

By angelatran | Published: July 17, 2009

Today, class started off with the last showing of “Look Around You.” We then had a guest speaker named Jim Gimzewski, who has become a well renowned scientist. Following this lecture, we were instructed to work in our project groups. The day was indisputably productive, allowing us to finalize and complete our animation and power point. As our group directors checked on us, they suggested many helpful ideas, allowing us to improve our project to an extent. When we were in the midst of working on our project, Natalia, a recent student of Victoria’s, visited us to give us a demo of GMOS – genetically modified foods. What she told us was startling to me. I was completely oblivious to the fact that about ninety percent of soy products were genetically modified, and how not all fruits and vegetables were not exactly GMO free as well.


Genetically modified food crops include sugar canes, sweet peppers, strawberries, bananas, corns, pineapples, and potatoes. Processed foods made with GMOs include popcorn, baby formula, dry cereal, and frozen pizza. This whole program has wakened me up in terms of how science connects to art. Before this class, I was never aware of the relation of science to many other topics, such as technology.


My personal opinion of this program was that it was great, especially since it was mixed with hard work and fun at the same time, such as the stop at Venice Beach. The visit to the Getty Museum was particularly interesting, since I am partially interested in art.


One thing is for sure – I will never forget the experiences I had this summer here, during the Science/Art Nanolab program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5cWWV0KNDg

http://www.ghchealth.com/genetically-modified-foods.html

http://biotech.about.com/od/faq/f/GMOs.htm

http://www.getty.edu/

http://www.venicebeach.com/

Posted in Studnt Blog Group Y | Leave a comment

7/15/09

By angelatran | Published: July 17, 2009

“Incredible,” I thought. Right when I stepped into the Anechoic Chamber, I was immediately able to tell the difference. Everything outside the chamber was muffled, and the door was still open. The walls were made with a type of foam, placed in certain angles so sound would be able to bounce and reflect off from the wall onto each other. The floor was made of wired mesh, and feet below the flooring was more foam. Taking a visit to the Anechoic Chamber blew my mind, so I decided to research further into it.

The definition of an anechoic chamber is a shielded room designed to attenuate sound or electromagnetic energy, otherwise known as a room with special walls that take in as much sound as possible. Sometimes the room is actually built on shock absorbers, opposing any vibration from the rest of the building or the outside environment. It was originally used to absorb sound echoes caused by reflections of an enclosed space, but nowadays is also used to provide a protected environment for radio frequency and microwaves. There are two types of anechoic chambers: EMC chambers, which are used for testing electromagnetic compatibility, and antenna chambers, used for testing any kind of antenna patterns.

Earlier in the day, Pinar gave us a presentation about art, and briefly mentioned the topic of granular synthesis. She provided us with certain pictures, which in truth were very interesting. Later on, she also showed us video, which I thought was really creepy. Doing research, I found that the definition of granular synthesis is a basic sound synthesis method that operates on the micro sound time scale.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granular_synthesis

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-anechoic-chamber.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anechoic_chamber

http://www.eccosorb.com/america/english/page/91/chamber-types

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NLLRKGVDl4

Posted in Studnt Blog Group Y | Leave a comment

7/9/09

By angelatran | Published: July 17, 2009

The day started off with a daily introduction. The topic for today was “Coming to Life.” Apparently, we live in what a lot of people call the Information Age. Materials have always been defined by their properties, and glass itself is actually considered a technology of its own time. Advances in materials have enabled us to explore and examine other properties of fundamental importance. Light, a wave or a particle, is an electromagnetic wave, but there are many contradictions. Nowadays, with nano technology, properties of many substances can be changed. Today, we also received a visit from Giacomo Chiari, director of the Getty Museum. The definition of “intangible heritage” is something that does not belong in the domain of science. It is of major importance for a historian to know at what time objects originated. Many objects have revolutionized as well, to become smaller and more efficient, therefore making then portable. A good example to look up or think about would be the cell phone.

After this lecture, it was time for lunch. When lunch was over, we came back for some lab visits at the Dunn, Yang Yang, and Shailos laboratories. Some things that I were awe struck by included the glowing algae and the sol-gel. In the algae laboratory, it was explained that when the algae get aggravated by their small predators, they start glowing to attract large fish, which are predators to the algae’s predators.


Sol-gel involves the transition of a system from a liquid “sol” into a solid “gel” phase.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/glowingalgae/

http://www.chemat.com/html/solgel.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol-gel

http://www.howstuffworks.com/light2.htm

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/2007/3/2007_3_8.shtml

Posted in Studnt Blog Group Y | Leave a comment

7/8/09

By angelatran | Published: July 17, 2009

In the daily introductions today, I found out that the whole concept of nanotechnology is not new at all. It has dated back all the way to Leonardo Da Vinci’s time, in which we would perform dissections on dead human bodies, which was not really done at his time.

The formation of movies regarding nanotechnology started in 1966, in the film, Fantastic Journey. After the daily introduction, a guest speaker named Leonard Rome lectured on nano medicine. He mentioned that electronic noise would become future sensors of abnormal metabolites in breath. Quantum dots are clusters of semi-conductor materials, which admit light at a very specific angle by their size. Their movements are visible in live cells.

In his lecture, he also brought up that tumors have large gaps in them, like leaky blood vessels. Basically, nano medicine will use engineering molecular systems and molecular knowledge of the human body to maintain and improve health as a whole. A short break was then given before Hilary Godwin, specializing in nano toxicology, started her speech. Nothing is safe. An overdose of almost anything can kill you, even if all you did was drink an intense amount of water. Nano silver use in regulation is controversial, because it has an unknown, possibly bad effect to the environment. On the good side, it helps ward and kill off bacteria.

A good example was a video she had shown to us talking about nano silver socks, and how they were effective and did their job.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Nano

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080406175050.htm

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t716100760

http://www.evidenttech.com/quantum-dots-explained/how-quantum-dots-work.html

http://www.zyvex.com/nano/

Posted in Studnt Blog Group Y | Leave a comment

7/7/09

By angelatran | Published: July 17, 2009

The day started off with a “Look Around You” video, which is a science fiction comedy. Later on in the day, we went downstairs in the CNSI building to go visit some labs, including our professor’s lab, Nano and Pico Characterization. We also stopped by electron microscopy and advanced optical/fluorescence imaging labs.

In the fluorescence lab, it was interesting to find out that fluorescent tags were used to bring out certain parts of organisms, such as when we were shown the cell’s DNA. Tables holding microscopes resisted any vibration from any kind of source, including those emitted from the outer environment. Next was the Nano and Pico Characterization. This lab provides an extraordinary amount of nano-scale surface analysis instrumentation. The lab also provides both state of the art microscopic ways to view surfaces, nanostructures, and devices at the atomic and molecular scale. Three different methods of research are available in this lab: scanning probe microscopy (SPM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), atomic force microscopy (AFM). The last lab visit of the day was to the electron microscopy lab.

Electron microscopes have a small “tunnel” in which the samples are inserted. However, these microscopes were not allowed to test liquid materials, so every sample has to be frozen up or dried.

After a tour around these three labs, we attended workshops for three hours. The topics were helping us on our finals and midterms by teaching us how to make websites, power points, and videos. In the end, my group and I decided to use a power point for our presentation.

http://www.cnsi.ucla.edu/nanopicolab/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBcrTucxiRc

http://www.unl.edu/CMRAcfem/em.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_tag

http://www.cnsi.ucla.edu/staticpages/core-facilities

Posted in Studnt Blog Group Y | Tagged | Leave a comment

FerroFluids

By edwardkehoe | Published: July 17, 2009

07.15.09 UCLA – Today I’m going to dedicate this whole blog to speculation on ferrofluids. According to dictionary.com the definition of ferrofluids “is a liquid which becomes strongly polarized in the presence of a magnetic field”. And this was exactly what we did today, we built ferrofluids. Not on a grand scale bu on a scale good enough to make more then the point of what this liquid substance was.

More into what it is: Ferrofluids are basically iron particals that are suspended in a liquid then added to somthing of a liquid or oil to keep them at bay but still with the ability move.

Why might i speculate that these particals coudl be useful? Well seals for first. The door could have some magnetic charging device which attracts the tiny particals and then a liquid seal of magnetic paricals is formed. And it should hold without a huge consumption of energy. Also it would serve as a great lubricant to parts of charged lubed mechanical peices. Becuase the lube would beable to keep with the joint without dripping or anything of the sort since it woudl be attracted to what it was applied to. As I read further into ferrofluids it seems they serve as hard drive lube. The military uses somthing of the sort to keep radar from sticking to their airplanes. In nasa it serves as an important role in judging the altitude.

Now Im not personaly sure how it serves in these tasks but it apparently works to a decent enough level that Nasa has adopted it along with the military to how it has enough potiental even at the moment. I would speculate that this magnetic gel/fluid has a big future actually if we can make it more powerful.

http://www.zuqka.com/kimandy/blog/tags/scientific-sht-you-will-never-knowunless-course-you-read-article

http://cnx.org/content/m15532/latest/

http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/education/students/activities/makeferrofluids.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrofluid

http://www.reference.com/browse/Ferrofluid

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment