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Showing posts from April, 2019

Medicine & Technology

Growing up with sports, I have been fortunate enough to not have to deal with the technology side of medicine other than antibiotics and a mandatory heart scan for the athletic department. However, I have always been super aware of all the advancements and available machines for those with injuries.  Injured Patient Using Virtual Reality to Learn to Walk Again I really enjoyed Diane Gromala's TEDx Talk about how instead of pitying herself for her chronic disease she used it as leverage for her research in interactive art and computer science. She discussed how virtual reality inspired her new paradigm having learned that it enables awareness and inner feelings. It is amazing to think that virtual reality cannot only relieve short term pain, but Diane's research proves that it can settle long term pain too.  Virtual Reality Goggles Normal vs. Cancerous Cells The "Architecture of Life"  article focused on how molecules and atoms self assembles in the way ...

Event #1: Meteorite Exhibit

Me with Old Woman Iron Meteorite  Me with Camp Wood Iron Meteorite  I went to the meteorite exhibit in the Geology building and was pleasantly surprised! It definitely was not anything astonishing, but there was a bounty of objects and rare items that were on display in the small room!  The first selfie I took was in front of the Old Woman Iron Mete orite (second largest meteorite from the USA). Crazy to think that its 177.4 lbs because it doesn't look it! and even crazier than the meteor was much heavier when found! The second photo is in front of the Gibeon and Camp Wood Iron Meteorite. Something interesting about the Gibeon meteor group IVA is that it also includes diamond structures. The Camp Wood Iron came from a planetesimal which is a minute planet  a body that could or did come together with many others under gravitation to form a planet. One major realization after visiting the exhibit was that meteorites are asteroid fragments when previous...

Robots & Art

The industrial revolution was only the beginning for the evolution of robotics and I believe we are only budding the surface of what engineers have discovered and created. After watching the lectures, it is very apparent the history of geniuses who have paved the way and helped aid us to be as knowledgeable about the application of mechanics into everyday capabilities. People like Nikola Tesla (AC), Michael Faraday (dialysis), robots emerging into assembly lines and how that affected the printing press and car production, computers becoming the unity of the modern world, and I could go on. Robot Show in Tokyo The Ted Talks gave great insight into how robotics are being tested and utilized today. Starting in Japan where robots have always been prized and designed to mimic human form rather than American robots who are designed with a specific purpose and put to work. I will never forget when I visited Tokyo and we went to a Robot Show. Probably one of the most bizarre experie...

Week 2: Math & Art

This week from all the various readings, websites, TedTalks I learned of the rich and significant history of art and science and how that has to start to come to life again in the modern day. From the lecture, Professor talks about the one point perspective established by painters like Brunelleschi. A perspective which is created by a balance of scale and what the human eye perceives is very malleable, yet crucial to understanding paintings. Henderson stated, " The apprehension of space and the development of human consciousness are parallel one cannot explore a dimension unless prepared to comprehend it". In other words, it is hard for an unskilled artist like me to draw an image of a hallway with a single vanishing point because I have not mastered mathematical proportions and lines in a way that these artists have in order to illustrate something so accurately. Through Abbott's lens of "Flatland", he would imply that people (men) like Leonardo Da Vinci, Leon...

Two Cultures

Art and science have always been two co-existing factors in my life with noticeable differences. I recognized these distinctions starting in middle school where we were still required to take general education science and elective art classes. Those who were good at constructing shapes with paint brushes received higher grades and those who could memorize the chemical equation for photosynthesis tended to do better. This has stuck with me since then because although I do not consider myself an artist I really tend to think more creatively and open-minded as people would see from a right-minded thinker. However, I am a woman of to-do lists and organization which would be expected of a left minder thinker. Thus, I have never really identified with the whole specific left/right outlook! Maybe this isn't a good thing as I am still undeclared here at UCLA and not exactly sure what academic path I am most interested in :/. I am steering towards communication studies in which I believe s...