For our midterms this week, we had to present a rough idea of what our final project would be.Some people presented medical projects while others chose products for more domestic uses. However our project was completely abstract. I think that we felt that it was really important to combine beauty and science and show a direct correlation between them. The way that we did this was to show a visual representation of sound that could be finessed and manipulated. Sound would be seen as a bunch of floating “nano” particles that, when in motion, would emit sound. The type of sound emitted would be determined by the speed of the particle at which it is moving, and the speed of the particle would be determined by one’s own hand. Many other factors would come into play; force, direction, collision, and even shape of the field of particles. But the most important factor of our project was that it had to be beautiful. When one saw the particles, he would not only be seeing sound itself, but a piece of art.
Blue sound, inspired by quantum dots.
We found something in science that may be able convey our outlandish idea: quantum dots. These beautiful dots have been used for tagging and identifying different cells through color. The essence of these dots is that the lower the energy in the dot, the redder it will be. The higher the energy in the dot, the bluer it will be.
Using these properties of quantum dots, we hope to be able have the dots not only emit fluorescent color, but sound as well.
Many things are too small to see with the human eye, yet are all around us. Things at the nanoscale where only thought in theory before the first microscopes were invented. In 1609, Galileo Galilei made the first compound microscope with a convex and concave lens to look at things much smaller than the human eye can perceive. Nowadays we use much more powerful microscopes such as the SEM or, Scanning electron microscope, to witness regular day things blown up thousands of times.
At UCLA, I observed amazing scanning electron microscopes and got to play with 3 different ones!Scanning electron microscopes beam down electrons to get a very clear, black and white, 3-D, blown up images of a small objects. It was really cool because we got to play with the magnification and look at things much larger to uncover new realities. On the new microscope we got to put our hair samples in the machine and look at them at greater magnification. When they were blown up larger, new patterns and details magically showed up that you could have never see before without a microscope of that magnitude.\
In 1665, Robert Hooke discovered cells in a piece of cork using a compound microscope. Compound microscopes are good because you can look at organisms without having to kill them to view them. You can watch them as they are moving in a fairly good magnification. We looked at different cells with fluorescent dyes under different lights and saw the things that we needed to see highlighted. We could see cells and DNA in different pigments so we knew which was which.
Microscopes are very important to science in objects that are very small. When you can see an object at much greater magnification, you can see the things that much more important they lay beyond the what your eye regularly perceives. At UCLA, we saw quite a bit of both microscopes and they were quite captivating to look through.
Thursday, which was in my opinion the most interesting day, covered the worlds of both art and science and also focused on solutions to current problems such as energy sources. First of all, Giacomo Chiari lectured us on the science of art conservation. He told us of the methods used to conserve ancient and beautiful pieces of art. A device called Fadeometer measures the effect of light on an object, such as a painting, without damaging it. The advantage of this is being able to analyze the materials of a painted surface without having to dig into it. Taking a tiny sample of the artwork to analyze it is another technique. The sample has to be small enough to not distract the viewer from the focal point of the painting or sculpture. This lecture perfectly encapsulated the idea of the collaboration between the arts and the sciences.
After the lecture we visited the labs of Dr. Dunn, Dr. Shailos, and Dr. Yang. In the Dunn lab we were introduced to sol-gel which is glass made at room temperature and made by mixing liquid chemicals. We also studied hydrophilic, hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces. The Yang lab focused on alternate fuel sources so we were able to see how solar panels were created and how they work. Also the scientists showed us how bioluminescent algae are able to produce a blue glow when they are excited or put in motion. Finally at the Shailos lab were able to use an interactive SEM (scanning electron microscope) to see our own hair or skin magnifies thousands of times. These lab visits gave me understanding of the enormous potential of nanotechnology.
http://www.chemat.com/html/solgel.html
http://www.buffalostate.edu/depts/artconservation/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioluminescence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrophobe
http://www.howstuffworks.com/solar-cell.htm
Nanotechnology has been around for years but never have we had the technology to keep up with it. Finally, in the past couple decades; scientists have created microscopes allowing us to see the once-invisible world. Some of these instruments include the popular light microscope, the transmission electron microscope (TEM), and the scanning electron microscope (SEM). Now that we can see into the nano world, scientists have begun to actually apply nanotechnology to practical and everyday concepts. Besides the many trivial applications for nanotechnology, such as nano silver socks, there are a few potential major breakthroughs; one being Nanomedicine. Nanomedicine according to Robert Freitas, is the monitoring, repair, construction and control of human biological systems at the molecular level, using engineered nanodevices and nanostructures. In his fascinating lecture, Professor Leonard Rome categorized the uses of nanotechnology in the body under one of these three groups: tools for disease diagnosis, new biological materials, and creation of new drugs and drug delivery systems. His ideas for tools for disease diagnosis included devices the size of iPods to analyze human blood. Interestingly enough, similar devices have already been introduced such as some diabetes monitors.
As for biological methods, some kinds of nanobots are being used as identifiers to gain a greater understanding of the human body. Also, Professor Carlo Montemagno introduced the idea of powering nanodevices with biological cells. The idea that mechanical machines and biological life could be manipulated to work as one, fascinated me.
Lastly, for drug deliver systems; structures called vaults are being created to either be a transporter, regulator, or protector within the human body. These vaults are made of a major vault protein (MVP), two smaller proteins, TEP1 and VPARP, and lastly a small RNA called vault RNA. These vaults have been injected with drugs successfully but the last thing that needs to be addressed is how to target vaults. Some ideas include therapeutics, non-machines, controlled release, or biological sensors.
http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicine/
http://www.vaults.arc.ucla.edu/
http://www.nanomedjournal.com/
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2004/02/amazing-montemagno.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19206245
Today we had our midterms. They were quite relaxed, easygoing, and interesting. Counselors provided positive feedback and even proposed more ideas towards helping groups. Some groups based their ideas entirely on art while others were based entirely on science. Both sides of these spectrums were represented. Our group’s idea was a treatment for Hemophilia A. This genetic disease is passed down through the X chromosome, but appears more frequently in males than females. A malfunction in the genetic code cause the body to not produce Factor VIII, a substance that is needed in order to clot blood. Without this substance, a hemophiliac has trouble clotting his blood once he starts bleeding. This can lead to fatal blood loss or fatal internal hemorrhaging. No cure has been found so far, and treatments are costly and tend to only work temporarily. But our solution was to create a nanobot, which would only be injected one time, and would help synthesize and release Factor VIII to the body, therefore removing the symptoms of Hemophilia. Although the person will be completely normal, they will need to eat a well balanced diet in order for the nanobots to synthesize the glycoprotein, Factor VIII. The person will also be able to pass on hemophilia, but our proposal is that at birth a shot will be injected if Hemophilia is discovered. Our solution would provide a safe, simple, and normal life for Hemophiliacs.
The feedback given to us by the counselors was that we should try to incorporate some form of art into our design. Another comment was, “why not just fix hemophilia, since your task was to imagine the impossible.” This set our group thinking on new ways to improve our idea, and to possibly cure hemophilia at the same time.
“Imagine the Impossible”. That was what we had to do. We had to think of something impossible that could someday be possible, using ideas that concerned Nanotechnology. My group had many ideas for the project. We even made this huge list of ideas for the project, however, none of them seem too amazing until we thought of the perfect idea. The idea was using nanobots as a treatment for hemophilia and possibly, a cure for the disease.
Hemophilia is a sex-linked recessive disorder defined by the absence of the proteins required for blood clotting. Hemophilia A deals with the lack of Factor VIII in the blood, which creates blood clotting. Factor VIII is a glycoprotein and small proteins that can be found in some vegetables and fruits. There are about one in 5,000-10,000 hemophiliac in the world. Though women carry the disorder, the symptoms don’t show since they are only carriers. Men, on the other hand, cannot suppress the disease and cannot clot their blood. Our idea was to inject hemophiliac males with two rounds of nanobots. The first series of nanobots would create Factor VIII from a regular diet that the hemophiliac eats. While the first round of nanobots help create the Factor VIII, we would inject a second series of nanobots, which would change the DNA of the hemophiliac so that their body can create Factor VIII. The nanobots would travel with a small tail and create energy from the circulating blood, like how a ferry boat creates energy from churning water.
After we pitched our ideas, the instructors and fellow students asked intriguing questions that helped us greatly. Thank you everyone who helped us change some of our ideas.
Thursday was my favorite day of the program. In the morning we attended a lecture on Art Conservation by Giacomo Chiari, a scientist who works at the Getty Museum. His job is to scientifically analyze art and preserve it for generations to come. His career is almost the epitome of combining art and science. His lecture was quite interesting because it taught me about a field of research I have never heard of before. Although I did fall asleep through part of his lecture due to lack of sleep, I found it to be one of the more interesting lectures we have had so far.
More interesting than that was the lab visits. We visited three interesting labs that day; a Renewable Energy Research lab, A Material Science lab, and a lab containing a SEM microscope that we were allowed to play with. The renewable energy lab opened my eyes to the problem of using oil for power, and the fact that it was non renewable. The sun is a possible Energy source that could power our world in the years to come. The only setback is that the cost of building solar panels is highly expensive and only captures about 10% of the light hitting its surface area. The researchers are attempting to find new substances to create solar panels, but also they are studying fuel cells and biological energy. A researcher is studying the algae found during the red tide months. When disturbed these small creatures emit a glow similar to that of a glow stick. The theory is that the energy from this light could be captured or recreated in a lab and harnessed to power out world.
The best lab we visited on Thursday was hands-down the Material Science lab. Here they utilize a material called Sol Gel. Sol Gel is a liquid substance that when shaken and stirred can solidify at room temperature and form glass. This allows for many biological and heat sensitive items to be stored in glass. One theoretical use of this substance is a biological battery that would be powered off of enzymes and only needs basic sugar to operate. This could reduce the need to replace batteries in pace-makers, and could lead to new batteries for portable devices that could be recharged by simply adding sugar. A whole new field of opportunity was opened with the creation of Sol Gel
During Thursday’s lecture, I was introduced to many incredible artists who incorporated light into their work. However, one artist that appealed to me the most was Claude Monet. After viewing some of his work on the powerpoint, I wanted to learn more about his paintings.
Going online, I managed to find many of Monet’s paintings. In addition, I did research on some of them to try to understand what inspired him to create them. Here are some I really like:
1. Regatta at Argenteuil
Monet painted Regatta at Argenteuil in 1872. After a brief stay in Paris, he moved his family out of the city to Argenteuil. It was a quiet and attractive town on the right bank of the Seine River and was a popular retreat for weekend visitors. During his first summer in this new location, Monet occupied himself with painting boats under the summer sun.
2. London: Houses of Parliament at Sunset
In 1870-1871, Monet first depicted the Houses of Parliament when he visited London to escape the Franco-Prussian War. Some thirty years later, when he revisited the city in 1900 and 1901, Monet returned to the motif and was captivated by the Gothic spires of Westminster rising beside the Thames River and began some 19 depictions of the site in changing light and weather conditions.
3. Impression, Sunrise
This painting was created at the harbor of Le Havre when Monet was staying there in the spring of 1872. The painting is supposed to depict sunlight “dancing” and “shimmering” on the water and is acclaimed by many artists to be the painting that gave name to the entire Impressionist movement.
Seeing the impossible is taking what doesn’t exist or cannot exist, and applying it to life today. Artists tend to visualize the impossible, and create an image of it. This possibly could lead to the creation of that product years later. This defines the connection of science and art: art and science jointly develop and progress. Art defines science; science defines art. An example of this simultaneous progression is demonstrated through microscopic imaging. X-Ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopes (TEM), and Atomic Force Microscopes all improved the study of micro and nano particles. This developed a whole new field of research and study. In turn, artists utilized this technology to produce art at the microscopic level.
The connection of Art and Science has been present in society up until recently. The Renaissance proved to be the closest relation between art and science. Leonardo DaVinci was a famous artist and scientist that produced many famous paintings and sculptures, along with many inventions and breakthroughs in science. After his time, art and science have separated and grown further apart. Now that we are entering the 21st century though, they are beginning to grow close again, and their relationship proves to be closer than expected. In the future, the goal is to combine art and science as they were in the Renaissance.
In our rotating lab visits today we encountered a lively scientist who demonstrated his SEM lab for microscopy. He showed us how you can have fun with such a seemingly boring job. He played with liquid nitrogen and demonstrated the microscope in an interesting way. He proved that science doesn’t have to be boring either, it can be as much fun as art.
We came up with several ideas for our “Imagine the Impossible” project, yet found that all of them had been already thought of or were in the making. After much frustration, we were happy when we finally came up with our idea– the Nandage.
Proposal for the idea of the Nandage
The Nandage would be a more efficient and comfortable alternative to using Ace bandages, casts, athletic tape, etc. to treat injuries. Made out of an elastic material, the Nandage would stretch to be wrapped on an injury such as a sprained wrist or broken arm however a patient needed. In its normal state, the Nandage would be soft enough to allow mobility but would still provide support for a sprain. If a patient needed a harder cast for a broken bone, he or she would pour hot water on it. After the injury was healed, the patient would put the material in ice-cold water to remove it, and it would return back to its original shape. Adam gave us great advice to look up thermo responsive elastomers because we were trying to find a material that would stretch and be used but then could return to its original form. We are definitely going to research this. Some problems with casts are that they smell and itch after a while. To prevent this, Nandage would have nanosilver particles that would prevent bacteria from growing under it. The Nandage would also contain vaults, some with Advil to help the pain, others with calcium to help the healing process, and ones with vitamin D to absorb the calcium. These would be released five minutes after applying the Nandage because of the patient’s body heat.
Traditional cast that smells and itches
Advil would be released by using vaults in the Nandage
While Nandage incorporates scientific ideas, it fails to incorporate an artistic side. We are thinking maybe we could have it where the Nandage would change colors depending on what stage of the healing process a patient was in. This would allow patients to not remove the Nandage too early or too late. The concept of the changing colors is just an idea right now; we still need to figure out how this would work. Hopefully we will be able to tie the worlds of science and art together.
Many things are too small to see with the human eye, yet are all around us. Things at the nanoscale where only thought in theory before the first microscopes were invented. In 1609, 
Microscopes are very important to science in objects that are very small. When you can see an object at much greater magnification, you can see the things that much more important they lay beyond the what your eye regularly perceives. At UCLA, we saw quite a bit of both microscopes and they were quite captivating to look through. 
Thursday, which was in my opinion the most interesting day, covered the worlds of both art and science and also focused on solutions to current problems such as energy sources. First of all, Giacomo Chiari lectured us on the science of art conservation. He told us of the methods used to conserve ancient and beautiful pieces of art. A device called Fadeometer measures the effect of light on an object, such as a painting, without damaging it. The advantage of this is being able to analyze the materials of a painted surface without having to dig into it. Taking a tiny sample of the artwork to analyze it is another technique. The sample has to be small enough to not distract the viewer from the focal point of the painting or sculpture. This lecture perfectly encapsulated the idea of the collaboration between the arts and the sciences.
n motion. Finally at the Shailos lab were able to use an interactive SEM (scanning electron microscope) to see our own hair or skin magnifies thousands of times. These lab visits gave me understanding of the enormous potential of nanotechnology.
een introduced such as some diabetes monitors.
otein (MVP), two smaller proteins, TEP1 and VPARP, and lastly a small RNA called vault RNA. These vaults have been injected with drugs successfully but the last thing that needs to be addressed is how to target vaults. Some ideas include therapeutics, non-machines, controlled release, or biological sensors.
Hemophilia is a sex-linked recessive disorder defined by the absence of the proteins required for blood clotting. Hemophilia A deals with the lack of Factor VIII in the blood, which creates blood clotting. 
Factor VIII is a glycoprotein and small proteins that can be found in some vegetables and fruits. There are about one in 5,000-10,000 hemophiliac in the world. Though women carry the disorder, the symptoms don’t show since they are only carriers. Men, on the other hand, cannot suppress the disease and cannot clot their blood. Our idea was to inject hemophiliac males with two rounds of nanobots. 
The first series of nanobots would create Factor VIII from a regular diet that the hemophiliac eats. While the first round of nanobots help create the Factor VIII, we would inject a second series of nanobots, which would change the DNA of the hemophiliac so that their body can create Factor VIII. The nanobots would travel with a small tail and create energy from the circulating blood, like how a ferry boat creates energy from churning water.
