Donovan Nelson (DESMA 9)

  Fantastic Voyage was an entertaining film and was extremely relevant to this week's discussion of art, science, and medicine. In the movie, there is a man who becomes injured. He is diagnosed with a brain clot. There was no possible way to remove the clot and save the man. A team was assembled to be shrunk down inside of a submarine and injected into the man’s bloodstream. From the inside, their goal was to remove the clot and to get out of the man’s body within one hour. Initially this film reminded me of a show called, “The Magic School Bus”. There was an episode with a very similar plot. The class got into a magic school bus and took a trip inside a classmates body to find out why they were sick.  Submarine entering bloodstream from “Fantastic Voyage”(left), “The Magic School Bus” (right) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_School_Bus_(TV_series) These two films present similar ideas about being able to enter the body in order to treat an illness. Today technology has...

This week we have discussed the influence of science and technology on medicine. I believe one of the most important points of our discussion this week was mentioned during a recorded lecture when we talked about how innovation in this field has been especially driven by war.  Many advancements were made with prosthetics and plastic surgery during times of war. For example, during World War 1, many experienced facial injuries and disfiguration. Many techniques for transplanting skin, suturing, and even sculpting artificial features to mask facial injuries became more advanced during this time. More is discussed within the video below. Prosthetic Facial Features https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/faces-of-war-145799854/ This week we also explored the innovations that led to the non-invasive forms of imaging that are now available to allow for viewing the inside of the human body. Since ancient times anatomy has been studied using dissection. In the world of artistry it is e...

Previously in this class we have discussed the division between science and art as academic subjects and the relationship between math and art. In my previous blogs I have mentioned that art can be seen as a way of expressing mathematical or scientific ideas. I think that this week’s topic of robotics has provided a perfect example of just that.  It was very interesting to me while exploring the course material for this unit how much of an impact on the development of technology, robotics, and industrialisation can really be accredited to the implementation of the printing press during the time of the Renaissance. It is obvious how such an invention was able to facilitate things like the scientific revolution and Renaissance, however the impact that it had on industrialization was something that I had not considered before. It is now clear how assembly lines and robots could be said to have evolved from the introduction of the printing press.  Printing Press https://en.wikiped...

This week, the focus was specifically on math and art. We explored comparisons of the two as separate subjects, as well as how and where each is seen or demonstrated. Many have acquired a belief that one can only be good at one of the two subjects rather than both. Personally, I would hope for this not to be true as either subject is very interesting and equally important to me. In reality, it is evident that each and every one of us are born with the ability to perform either skill. However, according to R. Buckminster Fuller, we become more accustomed to one if the two topics, math or science, due to our educational experience. This is a process that he refers to as degeniusing. He explains that it is the reason that many students are often unable to provide an equal contribution to both subjects. R. Buckminster Fuller https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/bucky-on-stage/ Art and math affect the world around us in many ways that we often overlook. Architecture is just one ex...

This week’s discussions, readings, and lectures have provided me with a new comfort in knowing that I am not the only one who acknowledges and is disappointed about the obvious divide between art and science. As a student majoring in human biology, my focus is clearly on the sciences, but often I feel limited when it comes to opportunities to learn and express myself creatively.  C.P. Snow’s ideas in, “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution” perfectly translate my feelings into writing. I believe that neglecting art or science can be extremely detrimental to any student’s development. The goal should be to find a balance between learning the facts as defined scientifically, and applying them creatively. Personally, I view art as a way of expressing what we know as science, although art definitely has many other uses as well. Without art, we limit our options of ways to express or apply our ideas.  This idea of separating art from science is especially accentuated by un...