From UCLA & Cal Arts
OK, so let's admit it: Physics classes demanded too much math and chemistry got a little too complicated with its formulas and theoretical combinations. So good ol' bio, even with the sometimes gross dissections of various beasties, became the science of choice for many of us arts and letters types, who haven't looked back at much of it since, sigh. Here's two reasons to re-examine biology, which, clearly, isn't the 'easy' science of back in the day....
- The Bruins offer an intriguing examination of a nascent movement in the science, a move from sparkling, high-tech, scholarly and controlled ivy-tower labs to, um, grungy garages. In the same way that geeky teens like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs seized upon the then-developing field of computer science -- and voila, look how that changed the world -- experts are looking more closely at 'DIYbio' or 'Outlaw biology.' Sure, safety and risk underlie some concerns, particularly in the post 9/11 world. But some see potential advances in science and health when more members of the public, for example, undertake genetic study in their homes of rare diseases that afflict just a few.
Will 'DIY' or 'Outlaw' biology revolutionize a science, society?
- Meantime, for those in non-scientific worlds, the folks in Valencia have decided to offer an interdisciplinary cluster of courses that examine biology and its intersection and interplay with art. Experts already have seen how creatives have built a teahouse out of fungus, recorded trumpeters in the echoing expanses of the Grand Canyon or even breeding plants into their work, or in controversial fashion, commissioning a lab to engineer a rabbit with the green fluorescent protein gene of a jellyfish. The courses will tackle safety in dealing with technology as well as aesthetic, philosophic, critical and practical considerations of science and art.
A creative consideration of intersection, interplay of art, biology
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