I liked this way of learning scientific concepts through art, hands on demonstrations and experiments. I think I’ll remember what I’ve learned in this class, because I’ll remember what kinds of artwork I made to convey scientific messages. My favorite … Continue reading
About one billion birds die from flying into windows every year in the United States. Science and art students at Michigan Tech University are working on a way to help birds avoid windows. Unlike humans, birds can see ultraviolet (UV) light. … Continue reading
I think the two links below do a good job of summarizing what we know about prion proteins. http://www.emergentuniverse.org/#/proteins This first link is an interactive website with a creative design. You’ll see that when you place your curser over a … Continue reading
http://phys.org/news/2012-02-prion-proteins-powerful-role-survival.html#jCp Prion proteins don’t just cause scary diseases. They are also “commonly used in yeast to produce beneficial traits,” which “can be passed on to subsequent generations and eventually become ‘hard-wired’ into the genome, contributing to evolutionary change.” Some proteins … Continue reading
http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2008/07/20/monet_gauguin_using_art_to_make_better_doctors/?page=full This article is from 2008, but I think the courses described in it are still being used to help medical students improve their diagnostic skills. One course takes med students to the MFA to have them observe and discuss works … Continue reading
Dogs have only two kinds of cones in their retinas, whereas humans have three. As the video above explains, the lack of a third kind of cone does not mean that dogs see in only black and white. They can also … Continue reading
I’ve heard of light therapy being used to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which is a kind of depression that recurs in late fall and winter. During these seasons, there are fewer hours of light per day. Lower exposure to daylight … Continue reading
After learning about kuru in class, I wanted to know more about other kinds of prion diseases, including fatal insomnia. People with fatal insomnia die because, as the disease’s name suggests, they are unable to sleep. I wondered why this … Continue reading
Last class, we learned about the body’s carbonic acid-bicarbonate buffer system, which stabilizes the pH of our blood. When this system is overwhelmed, the blood can become either too acidic (this is called acidosis) or too basic (this is called … Continue reading
Last class we saw for ourselves that water and oil do not mix. This is due to the fact that water is polar and oil is non-polar. Water molecules form strong hydrogen bonds with each other and are not as … Continue reading