In the 1980s, poetic and philosophical implications of the serious, scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) helped to inspire pioneering work in a new field of molecular biology art. This presentation will draw together ideas about radio, lasers, genetics, sculpture, mathematics, natural language, history and the nature of discovery itself.
Third Annual Global Symposium on NanoBioTechnology
CNSI Auditorium, UCLA
The 3rd Annual Symposium on Nanobiotechnology will be held in the auditorium of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) on the UCLA campus. The theme this year is "New directions in NanoHealth." Presentations will focus on diagnostics, drug therapies and delivery systems, nanosafety, and other related areas of nanomedical research. Special emphasis will be given to breakthrough discoveries from laboratories in Asia, North America and Europe.
The symposium will provide an international perspective on nanoscience and nanotechnology by featuring speakers from the Center for NanoBio Integration (CNBI) at the University of Tokyo , the CNSI at UCLA, the Nanomedical National Core Research Center at Yonsei University and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU).
Visit the website for additional information about registration, speakers and agenda!
Registration is free, but space is limited! Register now!
On March 5 and 6, the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA will hold a joint symposium with the Consolidated Research Institute for Advanced Science and Medical Care (ASMeW) at Waseda University of Tokyo, Japan, on nano-scale research into biosenors, biomaterials, and nanotoxicology. Specific topics will include on-chip sensor devices for medical care and the risk assessment of engineered nanoparticles. These topics represent the research strengths of both institutions, and will be the basis for future collaborations in the biomedical area.
The symposium will be held in the auditorium of the new CNSI building at UCLA. This 188,000-square-foot facility located in the center of the campus is dedicated entirely to basic and applied nano-scale research in medicine, engineering, and the physical and life sciences.
This Symposium represents a commitment by both ASMeW and CNSI to the dissemination of their research findings to international audiences. It is also the highlight of a year long celebration marking the 125^th year of the founding of Waseda University.
Waseda University was founded in 1882 and has since become the top private university in Japan. ASMeW was established in 2004 by the Japanese government as a Super Center of Excellence to carry out cutting-edge research in the biomedical, life science, and health care fields. It incorporates the Institute for Biomedical Engineering and a Strategic Management Center for the governing of medical and science research. It will soon occupy a new research facility formally affiliated with the Tokyo Women's Medical University.
Professor Leonard H. Rome
Interim Director of CNSI, will serve as UCLA faculty sponsor for the symposium.
Winter Art + Activism Lecture series begins with Adam Zaretsky who will lead a biotech workshop
Lecture "On Mutaphobia" by Adam Zaretsky
4:00pm EDA(Eli Broad Arts center)
6:00pm, BioArt workshop, CNSI Pico Lab.
Adam Zaretsky is a Vivoartist working in Biology and Art Wet Lab Practice. This involves biological lab immersion as a process towards inspired artistic projects. His personal research interests revolve around life, living systems, exploration into the mysteries of life and interrogating varied cultural definitions that stratify life's popular categorizations. He also focuses on legal, ethical and social implications of some of the newer biotechnological materials and methods: Molecular Biology, ART [Assisted Reproductive Technology] and Transgenic Protocols. Zaretsky also teaches Vivoarts: Ecology, Biotechnology, Non-human Relations, Live Art and Gastronomy. A major focus is on artistic uses and the social implications of molecular biology, tissue culture, genomics and developmental biology. Adam Zaretsky has been published in Nature Magazine, Red Herring, Leonardo, The Washington Post and Johnny's Unstoppable Bathroom Reader. He has spoken at Harvard, NYU, CAA and SCIARC.
-- While working in an MIT lab, Adam Zaretsky once spent two days playing a recording of the hits of singer Engelbert Humperdinck to a petri dish full of E. coli bacteria. The organisms’ antibiotic production increased, and he concluded that humans aren’t the only clusters of cells agitated by the continual “loud, awful lounge music.” He dubbed it “the Humperdinck effect.”
Science can prove that there are billions times a billion of atoms in a grain of sand and show that if we reduced our body to a solid mass of neutrons and protons it would result to a hundredth of a thickness of a human hair. Even there, string theories question this atomistic: view.
When we go beyond the visible realm, we enter into non-materialism and yet the interpretations can still be abstracted from the human condition and remain materialistic. At the same time, this space of “nothingness” is a natural meeting place for art, science, philosophy and spirituality. Join an extraordinary meeting of the minds to ponder how this new age of global communication systems, nano and biotechnology is transforming our perception of reality.
Chuni Lobsang Jinpa Rinpoche
Lama reincarnate, Gaden Shartse Monastic College
Roy Ascott
Theoretician, artist, director, Planetary Collegium, UK
Sigi Hale
Neuroscientist, co-founder Mindful Awareness Research Center, UCLA
Barbara Fields
Director, Association for Global New Thought
James Gimzewski
Nanoscientist, Pico Lab, UCLA
Ven Lama Phuntsho
Translator, Gaden Shartse Monastic College
Organized and moderated by: Victoria Vesna
media artist, director, Art | Science Center, UCLA
The following books will be available for sale at the UCLA Ackerman Book Store:
- Ascott, R. (ed). 2006. Engineering Nature: art & Consciousness in the post-biological era. Bristol: Intellect. ISBN 184150128X
- Roy Ascott Telematic Embrace.Visionary Theories of Art, Technology, and Consciousness
Edited and with an Essay by Edward A. Shanken. Berkeley: University of California Press ISBN 0-520-21803-5
- The Universe in a Single Atom : The Convergence of Science and Spirituality (Hardcover) by Dalai Lama XIV
