Beginnings

As we discussed in class, society often expects answers from scientists. It seems though that scientists don’t necessarily expect answers from other scientists but rather they expect refutations and hypotheses. Scientists and artists both concern themselves with questions and concepts. If you were to ask a scientist and an artist to answer the same question, they would each produce something entirely different—each their own representation. Scientists are critiqued if their research is too complex for the public but artists are critiqued just the same. Scientists and artists both have to work to make their conclusions understandable and consumable.
In class, we asked what would happen if we changed the pH of the solution in which we boiled frozen green beans. When we saw that a more basic solution leads to the greenest beans, we discussed how the base alters the chlorophyll’s porphyrin structure by reacting with the four nitrogen atoms that surround a single magnesium ion. This reaction changes not only the color of the beans but also its taste and texture is mushier as a result of the fact that basic solutions elevate the rate of disintegration.
This experiment showed us that we could see the result of a small change on an atomic level. As the short youtube video explains, all matter is made up of atoms. There are lots of types of atoms, however, each individual element contains only one type of atom with its own specific name. Thus, atoms are really the building blocks of everything. It makes sense to begin the semester here, with this experiment, to understand the changes that occur on such a small level that have a much larger visual result.
Scientists and artists are both visual thinkers. In each of their processes, there is a moment of pen to paper, a visible trail of thought. The scientific method and the artistic process share the same first steps: find a problem or question and observe. Is what follows that different? They end similarly too, with a conclusion and a presentation. What for a scientist might involve pages of research could be a canvas for an artist. I do not think there is a way to assess if one mode is more legitimate than the other it is more a question of which is more effective in communicating the conclusions—it could be the artist’s work or it could be the scientist’s experiment depending on the problem at hand.