Event 3: Sawyer Seminar on Environmental Humanities

Around the end of this quarter, I attended the sawyer seminar on the topic of environmental humanities held in UCLA as my last event for this course. I could not help but feel that time flies. I still remember when I read about “two cultures” at the beginning of the course and did research on various topics in science and technology field in the following weeks, each of which is interesting and attractive, and therefore I really like this course.

However, the last event of this course to me is not that straightforward because of the extremely strange topic for me. The term of environmental humanities is actually not familiar to most people because it just emerged several years ago and is really a new branch of humanities study. When I entered into the meeting room, I was kind of nervous because of the unfamiliar topic. However, the nervous feeling went stronger after I found that all the people inside, both the lecturers centered in the front of the class and the audiences are senior scholars. (A white-haired elder just sit besides me.)

Nervous me with other scholars

Through the research, I understand that the environmental humanities relates to “complex interrelationships between human activity (cultural, economic, and political) and the environment,” (Daniel) which largely corresponds to the cross-field feature of our course. The trend of integrated study is actually throughout the whole world as the necessary result of world development. Therefore, it once again reminds me to study and explore extensive fields of one subject to acquire more comprehensive and meticulous scholarship. “One of the fundamental ontological presuppositions of ecological humanities is that the organic world and its inorganic parts are seen as a single system whereby each part is linked to each other part.” (Wikipedia.org) Just as one professor gives the simple example of people and animals’ life, they actually interrelate to each other. Or in a general level, people’s life, the construction and exploration of land made effects on animals in different aspects from lifestyle to genetic change, which is the most basic knowledge well known by children. When we see everything as connected, then the traditional questions of the humanities concerning economic and political justice become enlarged, into a consideration of how justice is connected with our transformation of our environment and ecosystems.

Professor immitates Cormorant behaviors

Actually, even in academia, the definition of the environmental humanities varies according to scholars’ particular understanding, experience and value of the term. However, the seminar like the one I attended this quarter is just making progress for sharing concepts and thoughts. “For too long, the humanities have not been interested in the environment, and those concerned with environmental issues have not been interested in the humanities.” (Thom) Actually this concept appears such as center in the works of UCLA, which makes me proud of my school.

This Video is what professor shows at the beginning of the meeting. Video of a double-crested cormorant and gull breeding colony in Toronto's Tommy Thompson Park. It shows how close Toronto really is, and how much noise these animals make.

We face a challenge of rethinking ‘the human’ in ecological terms.

Reference:

Grimley, Daniel. "Environmental Humanities." Torch. Web.

<http://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/envirohum>.

"Ecological Humanities." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 3 June 2015.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_humanities#endnote_Kingsland1985>.

Van Dooren, Thom. "Science Can't Do It Alone: The Environment Needs Humanities Too." The Conversation. Web. 3 June 2015.

<http://theconversation.com/science-cant-do-it-alone-the-environment-needs-humanities-too-9286>.

Week 9: Space + Art

I often think that the infinity of universe blocks us human from fully understanding its secrets. When I searched this opinion online today, I also got so many similar arguments, some of which are even from top scientists. For instance, in one article I read about the claim of President of the Royal Society Lord Rees—“the limitations of the human brain mean some of the biggest mysteries of the universe may never be solved.” (dailymail.co) However, just because of the unknown properties and its infinite mystery are human’s curiosity and motivation stimulated towards exploring it. Therefore, tons of artworks are created as a way of exactly representing human beings’ misunderstandings, doubt, conjectures, and interest in the universe in the process of their space exploration.

In my opinion, human’s study of outer space starts from the stars above their heads. Even in prehistory period, our ancestors were amazed by those shining stars and tried to note them through painting or carving. According to Wikipedia, “the oldest known star chart may be a carved ivory Mammoth tusk [which] is 32,500 years old and has a carving that resembles the constellation Orion.” (Wikipedia.com) It is indeed fantastic that the human of ten thousands of years ago can create such things without advanced science and technology, and it is interestingly proven that artworks driven by human’s curiosity naturally shows up long ago. With deeper understanding of the outer space and the universe we live in, not only people’s artworks quantity increases but also the art type forms a wide variety. For instance, the study of constellation Orion results in various exquisite manuscript star chats, and also great many mythological works in different cultures.

A celestial map from the 17th century, by the Dutch cartographer Frederik de Wit

Legends and Myths works from different cultures

Among all the art related with space, I personally consider TV dramas and movies as the most influencing ones for modern people. Actually, the space travel sci-fi movies have the most attractive topic for the public nowadays, illustrated simply by the global box office. Statistics shows that “just last year, the hard science hyper-realistic Gravity blew audiences’ minds and pulled down a heavy $716 million in global receipts.” (Hughes) Furthermore, the all time famous series star wars and star trek are so popular that the fond of them are beyond nationality and race. They, as both entertainment and visual arts, impress several generations of people with great memory.

Sci-fi Movie of space travel topic has become one of the most successful entertaining way for the audience

P.S. Interestingly, the series of Google doodles today are just to honor the first American woman astronaut in space, Sally Ride, who “remains the youngest American astronaut to have travelled to space, having done so at the age of 32.” (Wikipeida.com) I am surprised to find that even though she graduated from Stanford as a physics PhD, she actually transferred to Stanford in her junior year after studying physics from UCLA. “As the first American woman in space, Sally did not just break the stratospheric glass ceiling, she blasted through it,” said President Obama. (Regan) Sally’s works really inspire young people like us in our STEM work.

Reference:

"Limitations of Human Brain Mean We May Never Understand the Secrets of Universe, Says Britain's Top Scientist." DailyMail.com. 13 June 2010. Web. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1286257/Limitations-human-brain-mean-understand-secrets-universe.html>.

"Constellation." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constellation>.

"Sally Ride." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ride>.

Regan, Helen. "Google Doodle Honors First American Woman in Space." Time. Time. Tue. 25 May 2015.

<http://time.com/3895806/sally-ride-google-doodle-astronaut-nasa-first-woman-space/>.

Hughes, Mark. "Top 10 Best Space Travel Films Of All Time." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 8 Nov. 2014. Web.

<http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2014/11/08/top-10-best-space-travel-films-of-all-time/>.

Week 8: NanoTech + Art

This week’s topic, nanotechnology, is really interesting and attractive because I believe that people tend to be more curious about what they cannot usually see of the world, and nanotechnology is just a science of things in the nanoscale that are so small to perceive. Through the introduction videos from Professor James Ginzewski I already have a thorough comprehension of what nanotechnology is and how and where people use the tech. I must admit that it largely widens my view on nanotech because before taking the class I only think nanotechnology is used in producing some new structural (nano-scale) materials from the daily seen items such as water bottles or clothes with nanotech tags.

Close up view of nanohairs and their interaction with the surface

Synthetic gecko foot hair heirarchy

However, the truth is that scientists’ study of nano scale is far beyond the limited usage of nanotechnology as I know. I really respect what they did in better understanding the world and helping improve people’s life such as to study the gecko’s “billions of these tiny adhesive nanofiber hairs” (nanolab.me), to know about the morpho butterflies wings’ composition of “nano-sized, transparent, chitin-and-air layered structures” (asknature.com) and the nanodrugs Abraxane to help treat cancer by using “albumin nanoparticles to improve the therapeutic and safety properties of an anticancer agent.” (nano.caner.gov)

Morpho butterfly wings have tiny scales covered with microscopic ridges,

cross ribs, and other structures. These play with light waves to create brilliant

blues and speckles. The structure, instead of a chemical, creates the color.

Different nano particles are used in create different visual color

I personally would like to study more about the usage of nanotechnology in artistic creation by modern artists because besides the scientific discussion or usage of nanotechnology, the nano-scale art works indeed surprise me. Just looking at the picture of those nano art works, either a stature of simply a “painting,” I can hardly believe that they are in a hundred thousands scale of what appears to me. I think it is so amazing to be created that little that beyond my understanding and imagination before taking the course. So I did my research into this small world.

Google searching result of Willard Wigan Art, most of
which are so small that can be contained in the needle eyes.

One aspect of the advantages of nanotechnology is the smaller the better. (Chen) People may understand in this way, as long as there is enough resources in the world people can build things as large as possible, which is easy. However, sometimes, the modern world needs not the big thing because of its low accuracy and sensitivity. Think of some electric component such as vacuum tubes in the ordinary radio: the original clumsy big tube can be improved to nano-scale semiconducting transistor, the nanowire, with much higher sensitivity and bigger amplitude. Furthermore, because of the natural properties of nanoscale things, such as nanoscale special optical phenomenon, people can accomplish the same effect in art works of particular nano structure. One representative example is the the color painted on stained glass of european church. The last aspect is that by some special constructing methods people can show artistry in their creations. One artist who is somewhat familiar to me is Willard Wigan, who is an English sculptor who makes microscopic art. I remembered that I read about his works in needle eye in some magazines. Actually, “a single sculpture can be as small as 0.005 mm (0.0002 in.)” (Wikipedia.org) Think about it!

Reference:

"Gecko Hair Manufacturing." NanoRobotics Lab. Web. <http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/geckohair/>

"Wing Scales Diffract And Scatter Light: Morpho Butterflies." AskNature.org. Web.
<http://www.asknature.org/strategy/1d00d97a206855365c038d57832ebafa#.VV1gM2TBzGc>.

"The Abraxane® Story: A Nanoparticle Platform Delivers Improved Anticancer Activity." Nano Cancer Institute. 30 Jan. 2006. Web. <http://nano.cancer.gov/action/news/nanotech_news_2006-01-30e.asp>.

Chen, Yifang. "Nanotechnology and Nanoart." University of FuDan. 26 June 2013. Web.
<http://news.fudan.edu.cn/2013/0626/33825.html>.

"Willard Wigan." Wikipedia.org. Web. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Wigan>.