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ART OF A SCIENTIST
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HOSTED BY THE POWER PLANT GALLERY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY
©2021 Power Plant Gallery, a laboratory for the arts at Duke. Copyright for all works remains with the respective artists. Used here with permission. powerplantgallery.duke.edu Zine designed by Emily MacDiarmid, MFAEDA ‘22
ART OF A SCIENTIST Hello, We know the world looks a lot different lately. We know that many of us are struggling, exhausted, seeking support from loved ones. We know that our screen time has shot up like wild, and we thank you for choosing to use some of that screen time to be here. The Art of a Scientist is a place where art and science play together to spark curiosity & connection. Created by a team of then PhD science students at Duke University in 2017, this exhibit is our way of helping science reach out and be accessible to the public. Scientists from across NC’s Triangle joined forces with the thriving local arts community to bring you this exhibit for the last few years. It has grown and allowed us to explore these fields in ways we otherwise couldn’t. It has inspired collaborations & conversation about how similar art & science are. This year’s exhibit is themed “Bridging the Gap.” Whether we’re talking about a gap in knowledge, a physical gap living things connect across, or any space in between, Science and Art both seek to bridge the gap between us and the world. Inside this zine is a collection of pieces thoughtfully crafted to dance around this thought. The Covid-19 Pandemic has changed everything. For how long, we don’t know. But within these digital pages, we hope you find a break, a breath, a chance to experience science & art intertwining, like we hope to do in each other’s arms when this is all done. All our best, The AoS Curators Ariana Eily, Hannah Devens, Valerie Gartner, and Becky Stewart Contact | www.artofascientist.org | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
artists + scientists Raymond Allen Carmen Cubilla Andrews + Larisa Gearhart Will Barclay Grace Beggs Brinnae Bent Christian Boada Jude Casseday + Heather Sanchez + Elizabeth Goins Delisa Clay Ingrid Erickson + Greg Merrill Bob Goldstein Jess Gronniger Alyssa James + Thuy Hua Melina Keighron Melinda Martinez Kara McCormack + Katherine Mueller Beth Palmer + Andy Whiteley Christa Park Chris Sancomb + Arielle Fogel Kelly Sheppard Murray + Rachel Hoffman Natacha Villamia Sochat, MD MFA + Alaa Telchy Michelle Tackaberry Walsh/Blazing + Emily Levy Jan-Ru Wan + Maya Evanitsky Carson Whitmore + Irene Liao
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works
raymond allen Scientists work with organisms throughout the world, and it’s easy to lose track of how they impact science & society. As a sea urchin biologist, I try to bridge this gap between scientists, the general public, and organisms by photographing different species of sea urchins, explaining their similarities & differences, and the impact they have on science & society. This piece depicts the tests (i.e., internal skeletons) of 13 different species of sea urchins present throughout the world - differing in shape, color, and size. Contact | rla27@duke.edu
carmen cubilla andrews + larisa gearhart “AND IT’S A BEAUTIFUL THING” CARMEN CUBILLA ANDREWS: The cell death mechanism is used in multiple fields, which is a bridge for multiple subjects, including cell transplantation in diabetics. The glittering green of the transfected cells in an experiment mean a successful islet cell infection. The manipulation and study these islets are in the hopes of building a future for islet cell transplants in diabetic patients with nonfunctional islets. Larisa is a type one diabetic herself, another connection, minimizing the gap of scientific research to real life. The fabric of her shirt is the science she studies, and work she does to find a future for others. Her pump is used everyday, to sustain her body, to embolden the work she does in lab and in life. She has embraced her body and how it functions and accepted the inevitable changes that her body will go through. For both of us, our careers are in science and trying to create research that can be shared with the world and we are bridging the gap with the passions in our lives. Contact | Instagram | Email: creativecurlsandart@gmail.com
WHEN SCIENCE GETS PERSONAL LARISA GEARHART: Our lab’s work in programmed cell death bridges multiple fields, from cancer to organ transplant. This microscopic image, taken with the assistance of the Kirk Lab islet team and Devi Lab’s Alyssa McGowan, shows an islet cell successfully infected and thus glowing green with a virus that carries technology to reduce levels of a protein of interest. We manipulate and study these islets in hopes of improving islet cell transplant success in type 1 diabetic patients with nonfunctional islets. As a diabetic myself for over 17 years, I see this as a bridge between my personal and scientific lives, and that is a beautiful thing. Contact | lmg51@duke.edu
will barclay EAE This piece illustrates a component of the neurological autoimmune disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS). It highlights specific events during development of MS. It tracks the progression of the immune response which underlies MS - namely the activation of immune cells in lymph nodes which then travel to the brain to cause damage. Factors which control this travelling and by which avenue the immune cells arrive in the brain are not well known. This piece then highlights a gap in understanding, and also re-imagines the physical bridge between the immune and nervous systems. These connections were interpreted as intertwining bands and knots much like the branching of a tree, with heavy inspiration from designs seen in medieval tapestry and illuminated manuscripts. Contact | Email: web21@duke.edu
grace beggs X-RAY DIFFRACTION PATTERN AND STRUCTURE OF MTRR, A DNA-BINDING PROTEIN FROM NEISSERIA GONORRHOEAE GRACE BEGGS: Proteins are key actors on the molecular stage within a cell. The function of a protein is greatly dependent on its atomic structure; thus, I use powerful x-rays to determine the structure of proteins and to bridge the gap in our understanding of the cellular and molecular function of proteins. The black spots in this piece are the diffracted x-ray beams from the atoms of a protein within a protein crystal. These diffracted x-rays give us information on the position of the atoms within the protein; we can use this information to build a model of the protein (shown in rain bow colors). This piece shows the model of the protein MtrR, which senses toxins in the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae to turn on genes important for removing these toxins. Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the causative agent of gonorrhea and typically encounters bacteria-killing toxins exhibited by the immune system in humans. By understanding how these bacteria respond to toxins at the atomic level, we can find new ways to treat infections caused by these bacteria, which have become increasingly resistant to current treatments. Contact | Email: grace.beggs@duke.edu
brinnae bent BRIDGES: THE ABRIDGED VERSION A literal take on the theme “Bridging the Gap”, this series is a technology-art fusion on bridges. Bridges have been used for thousands of years to join two locations. In this work, we join art and technology, creating this series using artificial intelligence. Not only are we bridging the gap between art and technology, but we are also bridging the gap between our own human intelligence and artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is often portrayed as cold and mechanical. In this work, I hope to portray the beauty and complexity of artificial intelligence and convince the viewer of the emotion that can be induced by this technology.
CLICK HERE to view the neural transfer model used in this work. Contact | Email: brinnae.bent@duke.edu | Website | Twitter
christian boada I work with nanoparticles, which is something surreal considering you cannot directly observe them. I made the current image in part to have a representation that I can actually see. The picture is informed by my research, however it also helps me think about the nanoparticles which often leads to insights. Contact | Email: christian.boada@duke.edu
corey bunce LINEAGE TRACING CONNECTS PAST EVENTS TO FUTURE CELLS IN THE MOUSE GONAD Contact | Email: corey.bunce@duke.edu
My piece includes two immunofluorescent images of embryonic mouse gonads in which I use a technique called ‘lineage tracing’. Two of the colors, blue and green, mark the types of cells that we want to understand in the developing ovary (left) and testis (right). The magenta marks a population of cells that were undergoing DNA synthesis at the time a label was injected. By injecting the label some time before collecting the tissues, we can introduce an element of time into the static images. Knowing what the cells were doing when the label was injected, and seeing the final state they are in, we can piece together the dynamics these cells underwent. This is a way of ‘bridging the gap’ between time points when we are unable to watch the cells directly.
jude casseday and heather sanchez + elizabeth goins LATENT TO LYTIC Soundscape and illustrations are based on Elizabeth Goins (MS NCCU 2020) study of the Impact of Exogenous Ethanol and Acetate Exposure on the Viral Life Cycle of the Karposi’s Sarcoma Herpes Virus. JUDE CASSEDAY: The piece reveals the latent to lytic cycle of KSHV, whichis triggered and amplified by exposure to acetate in Ms. Goins’ study. First, the sound of the uninfected cell will be a repetitive phrase that is entered (rattling) from the outside layer by the virus. The virus moves into the cell over several phrase iterations until we have the sound of the cell phrase and virus phrase locked together in latency. Next, acetate burbles into the sonic landscape triggering the lytic phase, which initiates a gene cascade that encodes, replicates and “shuttles” the virus from the nucleus to the cytoplasm for assembly and amplification. This results in cell death and viral transmission. Contact | Email: dejacusse@gmail.com | Website
ELIZABETH GOINS: Elizabeth Goins received her Masters degree in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at North Carolina State University in 2020. Her research focused on Kaposi’s Sarcoma Herpesvirus (KSHV), specifically how alcohol could induce the virus to enter its latent phase. Her research began to include acetate (a metabolic intermediate of alcohol in the human body) and how its presence could induce lytic reactivation. Currently, Elizabeth lives in Austin, Texas where she works as a scientist for Thermo Fisher. Contact | Email: egoins@eagles.nccu.edu
CLICK HERE to experience the soundscape Jude Casseday: sonic illustration Heather Sanchez: animation/illustrations
delisa
BRIDGING TH
CLICK HERE TO V
I’m interested in understanding how cells maintain stable genomes. One wa commonly repair their DNA, damaged DNA can often escape surveillance fragments. Maintaining genome stability includes faithful segregation of c properly segregate. I am therefore seeking to understand what “bridges the use markers like the ones shown here (BAF1-G Materials Used: live imaging (Andor XD Revolution Spinning Disk
Contact | Email: d
a clay
HE DNA GAP
VIEW THE VIDEO
ay cells do this is by responding to damaged DNA after an insult. While cells e. I’m currently investigating the fate of cells with unrepaired broken DNA chromosomes during cell division but it is unclear how broken DNA would e gap” between two broken chromosome ends during cell division. We can GFP and Cenpc-Tom) to visualize this process. Confocal); Developing Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) rectum
dec44@duke.edu
ingrid erickson + greg merrill NORTHERN FUR SEAL INGRID ERICKSON: I enjoy working with and learning from scientists. In this series I have created “specimens,” such as this Northern Fur Seal, for an imagined Natural History collection. Works range in size from half an inch to over 6 feet. I used fishing line to suspend certain pieces and help them hold their shape. This piece is part of a new body of work made during the pandemic. My MUSEUM series features a new body of 3-dimensional hand-cut paper sculptures, over 40 of which are on view on my website. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE MUSEUM SERIES Contact | Email: ingridaerickson@yahoo.com | Website
GREG MERRILL: This northern fur seal on the Pribilof Islands of Alaska is entangled in marine debris. My current research is aimed at identifying the effects of plastic pollution on polar marine mammals. Fur seals serve as an important subsistence resource to Alaska natives and understanding the link between plastic pollution, its effects on seal populations, and ultimately the impact on the people who depend on the fur seals is a huge knowledge gap worth bridging. Contact | Email: gregory.merrill@duke.edu
bob goldstein ST. ANTHONY OF THE VIRAL PARTICLES Contact | Email: bobg@unc.edu | Instagram | Course Info | Prints
jess gronniger EPHEMERAL MICROBES Depicted are nine petri dishes with microbial colonies cultured from nine distinct vernal/ephemeral ponds located within Duke Forest. These ponds only form seasonally as a result of rainfall and have been found to house highly diverse microbial populations encompassing both soil and aquatic microbes. These ephemeral ponds, while transient in nature, are a true mixing pot of microbial diversity and harbor unique and beautiful microbial taxa that keep our forests alive and healthy. Contact | Email: jlg94@duke.edu
alyssa james + thuy hua RELIEF THUY HUA: My work identified an ensemble of neurons that alleviate pain. I believe once one experiences pain, the freedom from it is blissful. Thus, I see my work as bridging the gap to health, freedom, and happiness. Contact | Email: thuy.hua@duke.edu
ALYSSA JAMES: Contact | Email: alyssalynnj@gmail.com
melina keighron LITTLE HEARTLEAF This bridge connects the components of the ecosystem, the relationships with Little Heartleaf. Found along water, deer might eat the leaves, ants act as disperses, crawling creatures such as slugs could be the pollinators, off-leash dogs might crush the delicate flowers. The bridge would also connect the viewers with information about the study, found on the back of the postcards. My vision is to use art as an interactive way to engage the community with science. Hexastylis minor, aka Little Heartleaf, is an herbaceous, evergreen, perennial plant. There are 10 Hexastylis species that are only found in the Southeastern United States. Pollinators may include ants, small flying insects, crawling insects, snails, slugs or other invertebrates (Otte 1977). The seeds are ant dispersed—a mutualism mediated by a fatty structure on the seed (termed an elaiosome) that provides a nutritional reward to ants. I conducted my study in the Duke Forest to look at how its own density affects its population growth. I found that if the population gets too low, it may not be able to recover. Contact | Email: melina.keighron@gmail.com
melinda martinez
GREENHOUSE GASES IN GHOST FORESTS
Many freshwater coastal forested wetlands are experiencing forest dieback due to saltwater intrusion causing rapid changes from forest to marsh. The transition from forest to marsh leaves behind many standing dead trees (i.e. ghost forests) which have the potential to act as straws by facilitating greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) exchange from soils directly to the atmosphere. Methane and nitrous oxide are more powerful greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide because they have ability to absorb more energy (keep earth really warm). The painting depicted shows greenhouse gases are produced in soils therefore have much higher concentrations (stronger colors), and are transferred to the atmosphere at lower concentrations (more faint colors). Carbon dioxide -green, methane -red, and nitrous oxide -yellow. Contact | Email: mmarti13@ncsu.edu
kara mccormack + katherine mueller CONNECTION KARA MCCORMACK: A central theme of this work is the role of the life cycle in connecting materials with life energy, servin gas the vessel by which the two entities coexist and coevolve. Basic shapes and color inspirations from the scientific image were established as a foundation for this work, and then allowed the art to evolve and grow into its own unique expression. Pairs of green lines wind through the canvas, symbolizing the juxtaposition between the ephemeral life cycle of a single bacterium and the continual coexistence between the bacteria and ourselves. Overlapping the diluted shapes reflect the intricate network of cells and fibers that (in a literal sense) hold our bodies together, bridging the gap between individual particles and fully manifested lifeforms. Contact | Email: creationxmeditation@gmail.com
KATHERINE MUELLER: Although most people probably don’t think about it, we all have bacteria living within us. The bacteria living in our guts especially have a large impact on health. My work focuses on a common gut bacterium, Akkermansia muciniphila, and how it interacts with and colonizes the gut. Contact | Email: katherine.mueller@duke.edu
beth palmer + andy whiteley “WOVEN TOGETHER WITH HEART-BLOOD OF LIFE”
BETH PALMER: Closely connected fibers, with interspersed bright glimmers of hope, depict many c coming together to study cells, and hopefully help heal, patients and their affected malignancies. As a cancer patient/survivor myself, (with a close family member liv now a practicing arts in healthcare professional, which has gifted me the knowledg nect and bring new insights, this particular collaboration means the world to me. M streaming his Bach cello suites concert on the day that I completed this piece, as h It gave me courage and peace in a discombobulating time. I hope and pray for hea Contact | Email: info@bethpalmerstudio.com | Duke Artstigators Feature
ANDY WHITELEY: Leukemic cells must navigate a co physically “bridge the gap” as they the vasculature. This is an in vivo i of a live mouse - a technique that environments in real time. In a wa we study in a glass dish and what
Contact | Email: andrew.whiteley@duke.ed
caring, brilliant minds d loved ones, living with ving with a blood cancer,) and ge of the power of art to conMany thanks to Yo Yo Ma for live his global gift. aling for all of us.
omplex bone marrow niche and y migrate out of and away from image taken of the bone marrow allows us to visualize intact ay this bridges the gap of what t happens in an organism.
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Cells can die in many different ways. In this artwork,
Contact | Email: c
ta park
, can you see the cells dying by apoptosis or necroptosis?
christa.park@duke.edu
chris sancomb + arielle fogel SPHERES OF INFLUENCE CHRIS SANCOMB: These drawings are explorations of mark making as a means to create a language of code andpattern.Throughout the process simple algorithmic rules influence the quantity and frequency oflines, while compositional freedom creates form and pattern. Contact | Email: crsancomb@gmail.com
ARIELLE FOGEL: My work, which depicts the genetic ancestry of a population of hybrid baboons, and its associated scientific findings bridges the gap between what makes human evolution unique and what makes its similar to other animal taxa. My work also traverses the space between the seemingly uninterpretable genetic sequence (a tremendously long string of “A”, “T”, “C”, and “G” nucleotides) and the novel insights that can be gained by understanding the patterns in these data. These novel insights include understanding what has shaped a species’s evolutionary history and how biology, interacting with the environment, shapes diversity in the natural world. Contact | Email: arielle.fogel@duke.edu | Twitter
kelly sheppard murray + rachel hoffman ILLOGICAL TRANSCRIPTION (XXV) KELLY SHEPPARD MURRAY: This piece was inspired by the visual character, shifts in color and density, found in the plot that displays changes in chromatic structure. My work bridges the gap between logic and illogic by using ideas of visual organization to arrange objects that were otherwise created using a somewhat illogical and unplanned process of playful making. Contact | Email: ksm@kellysheppardmurray.com | Website CLICK HERE TO VIEW A CLOSE-UP VIDEO
CHROMATIN DYNAMICS A
RACHEL HOFFMAN: This is a plot displaying the changes in chromatin structure that occur due to transcription at the gene CIK1. This is an example of the experimental technique that my research group uses to map chromatin dynamics across the yeast genome using next-generation sequencing. This allows us to bridge the gaps in our knowledge of how chromatin regulates transcription (depicted), DNA replication, and DNA repair, at the level of single nucleosomes and transcription factors. Contact | Email: rah60@duke.edu
AT THE CIK1 GENE IN BUDDING YEAST
natacha villamia sochat, md mfa + alaa telchy BETWEEN NOW AND INFINITY
NATACHA VILLAMIA SOCHAT: As an artist as well as a person who has been academically trained in the sciences, I am pleased to participate in this endeavor. Initially, I did a painting solely inspired by the scientific work of the scientist I am paired with. I had finished this work enough such that it was ready for the 2020 Art of the Scientist exhibition. Then, COVID-19 reared its existence into our world. Initially in terms of this exhibition I did not feel a need to change the work to reflect the dominance of the COVID-19 pandemic in our everyday existence. However, it became obvious to me that my first painting would be incomplete so I made a new painting. I was deeply affected by the world all of us were forced to inhabit. I could not ignore this context in this work. It would feel sorely incomplete. So that is how this painting evolved and came into existence. It bridges the gap between the discipline of science and the communal experience we shared. Contact | Email: nsochat@gmail.com
ALAA TELCHY: My topic helps the public to be aware about the seriousness of infectious diseases and the urgent need to find a curable treatment. Contact | Email: atelchy@eagles.nccu.edu
NEISSERIA GONORRHOEAE UNDER ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
walsh/blazing + scientist: emily levy GENERATIONS WALSH/BLAZING: The Amboseli Baboon Research Project has spent 40+ years bridging our understanding of the mechanisms that impact baboon health and life expectancy; knowledge that can be applied to our understanding of humans. WALSH/ BLAZING are multimedia artists highlighting complex research and societal issues through visual storytelling. Their mixed media painting plus digital imagery, Generations, presents a layered vista inspired by the research location in Kenya, while 3-D elements depict one of the project’s many data collection methods. Contact | Email: walshblazing@gmail.com | Website
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ‘GENERATIONS’ VIDEO COLLAGE BY WALSH/BLAZING
SIZING UP EMILY LEVY: The Amboseli Baboon Research Project has been studying the lives of wild baboons in southern Kenya for nearly 50 years. Through meticulous data collection, we now know so much about our evolutionary cousins - who gave birth to whom, who died and when, who grooms whom, who fights with whom, their position in the social hierarchy, their feeding habits, their hormone levels, their genetic ancestry. By studying these baboons so closely and for so long, the baboon project has been able to learn the ins and outs of baboon social life, as well as the ways their social lives are affected by their outside environment. This piece shows a cross-section of the Amboseli Baboon Research Study. It includes a photograph of every adult female baboon in the study population from 2018-2019. Females are displayed with their social groups - groups that they are typically born into and die in along with all their maternal relatives. Within each group, females are ordered on the page by their position in the social dominance hierarchy - highest to lowest from left to right, top to bottom. Anna Lee and I took these photographs so that I could measure how big each baboon was. You’ll notice 2 or 3 green laser spots on the torso of each baboon. We project these lasers onto the baboons while we take photographs, and the laser spots act as a scale - we know exactly how far apart the spots are - so we can then size up the photographed baboons. We use these data to learn about the interactions between their social environments and their ability to grow and survive. Contact | Email: ejl37@duke.edu | Website | Twitter Amboseli Baboon Research Project
jan-ru wan + maya evanitsky WALKS IN LIFE
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO JAN-RU WAN: The work is a collection of leg and foot-shaped silk ensembles, suspended over a city skyline. The artist hand printed and sewn various translucent silk pieces in the shape of legs and feet to portray the diversity of all walks in life. It does not matter who we are, we all walk this common earth. More importantly, we all need to be mindful all the time to be “in other people’s shoes” so that we can understand the prevalent inequality in our society today. A well-balanced society needs all different forces on all levels to be able to function well. Hopefully this work would inspire people to think deeper what we must do to bridge the ever-widening socioeconomic gap. The work is a collection of leg and foot-shaped silk ensembles, suspended over a city skyline. The artist hand printed and sewn various translucent silk pieces in the shape of legs and feet to portray the diversity of all walks in life. It does not matter who we are, we all walk this common earth. More importantly, we all need to be mindful all the time to be “in other people’s shoes” so that we can understand the prevalent inequality in our society today. A well-balanced society needs all different forces on all levels to be able to function well. Hopefully this work would inspire people to think deeper what we must do to bridge the ever-widening socioeconomic gap. Contact | Email: janruwan@gmail.com | Website | Instagram | Facebook
REGENERATING ZEBRAFISH SCALES
MAYA EVANITSKY: Zebrafish are covered in scales that act as an armor to protect the fish. These scales are made of bone and can regrow if they are removed. Here we use transgenic fish that express a fluorescent protein to label bone cells (red) and stain the scale with a green dye that binds to the calcium in mineralized bone to study dynamics in bone regeneration. At this stage, the regenerated scale has been growing for 4 days. Contact | Twitter
carson whitmore + irene liao CHEERS, TO CARSON WHITMORE: Created in response to research on nectar production in morning glories, I was interested in the familiar touchstone of glassware to suggest a flower as vessel. My video Cheers, to is a sensory exploration of the form and function of these vessels, loosely representing nectar’s role in pollination and genetic exchange. Contact | Email: carsonwhitmoreart@gmail.com | Website
CLICK HERE TO VIEW the video
IRENE LIAO:
I am using genetic and genomic tools (digging into the molecular/DNA level) to better understand how nectar production has been reduced in the smaller of the two species. Additionally, we don’t know very much about the genetics of nectar, despite this trait being incredibly important for pollinator services (necessary for many crops, like almonds and blueberries) and also serves as the raw material for honey. I’m hoping that using these two species, I can understand the evolution of this trait but also gain a basic understanding of the genetics such that it can potentially be applied to other species. (P.S. the two species happen to be wild relatives of the sweet potato and are found as terrible weeds across the Carolinas and other parts of the US). Contact | Email: irene.liao@duke.edu
art of a scientist at north carolina school of science and mathematics We aim to make science accessible through art because art offers a different medium for understanding complex scientific ideas. This online gallery is modeled after the Art of a Scientist exhibit created by the Science Communicators of Duke INSPIRE. “Scientists’ original research products are presented through artists’ interpretations... allowing the viewer to appreciate the parallels and connections between science and art.” We hope that this can highlight a “creative” side to science, and help communicate a larger meaning. Scientists and artists were recruited from NCSSM and chosen and paired up. Then they created their own interpretive artwork based on scientific research. Sponsored by the NCSSM Science Communicators and the NCSSM Art Club Contact | Email: ariana.eily@ncssm.edu | Website
artists + scientists Camryn Byrum + Chayse Chandler Halden Levin Sarah Motteler +Thomas Benthall Lauren Subramaniam + Dr. Kat Cooper Aditi Wamorkar + Rachel Qu
camryn byrum + chayse chandler ALTERNATIVES This piece is based on research focused on finding alternative treatments for neurodegenerative diseases using natural plant extracts. There are real people who could potentially be benefitted by types of treatments, thus the faces represent that human aspect. They have loose features to connect to the idea these people suffer from diseases which inhibit their perception of the world, and their cognitive abilities. The plants featured are E. Leiocarpa (in green) and L. Radiata (in red) which are the plants that she is testing chemical extracts from. The goal of the research being done is to create methanolic extracts of chosen medicinal plants/fungi to assess their ability to inhibit acetycholinesterase as a potential therapeutic for Alzheimer’s disease. Low amounts of acetylcholine is correlated with the production of the beta-amyloid protein— over expression of said protein results in the side effects of this disease including neurofibrillary tangles and plaques that damage neurons. To create this work dual tipped pens were used alongside with brush pen on one side and fineliner on the other. The use of soft paper allowed colors to blend more easily. Each face is composed of loose highlight and shadows. A white gel pens was used to create buds and emphasize highlights of petals. The scientific names of the plants are written in fountain pen ink below each face.
halden levin A CURIOUS MIND ”A curious mind” is a digital collage depicting one significant finding from my research project titled “Single and Multiple Talker Acoustic Variation in Relation to Object Presence”: mothers tend to state words with a greater amount of variability in duration when the object associated with that object is present as opposed to when it is not. Utilizing dictionary pages with the words we extracted from the seeding’s corpus and objects associated with those words, the infant’s language learning environment was crafted. Indicating variability in duration, the haiku, describing the effect of talker variability and object presence on language learning, was written in various font sizes.
sarah motteler + thomas benthall REFLECTIONS OF EDELWEISS This research focused on manufacturing an easily producible, high quality, synthetic version of a nanofibers material found in the Edelweiss flower. This material was an elaborate weave of randomly aligning nanofibers that reflected high percentages, +85%, of UV radiation away from the flower. This Biomimetic material aims to be a synthetic version if this that utilizes nanofibers and multiple layer nanostructures in order to reflect intense UV radiation without using much material. This could then be used in Solar Panels, UV resistant textiles, lab protection, and so forth. This work depicts the edelweiss flower in metal, paper, and canvas. The flower’s structure was used as a model for nanofibers that reflect UV radiation, inspiring the reflective metal used in the work. These nanofibers could be used in many fields and hold many opportunities in terms of research. The curved pieces of metal came from soda cans, and the twisted pieces of metal are from aluminum foil. The centers of the flowers are punched from paper, and everything was stuck to the canvas with glue.
lauren subramaniam + dr. kat cooper BONDING
This piece was inspired by Dr. Cooper’s dissertation, in which she 3D-printed models of molecules used in biochemistry, and color-coded these models to demonstrate non-molecular bonds to her students. Students also used drawings of the molecules and other molecular relationships in biochemistry to model their thinking. This piece is a mixed media artwork which displays the models used and created by Dr. Cooper and the drawings done by her students. The bonds between the models are shown using recycled collaged paper, and some of the models themselves are made out of recycled materials. The models are shown in this piece in multiple different forms as a representation of the different ways in which a singular concept or idea can be interpreted.
aditi wamorkar + rachel qu BRAIN OF A SCIENTIST This piece of artwork reflects the effectiveness of CMTs, chemically modified non-antibioticTetracyclines, when binding to β-amyloid protein fibrils that are present within β-amyloid plaques caused by Alzheimer’s. The CMT’s are unique in that they do not carry a risk of bacterial resistance as compared to known β-amyloid aggregation inhibitors. The research done by Rachel measured the binding affinities of the different CMTs and then assessed which ones would perform best as an oral drug. The conclusions of her research were that CMT-3, CMT-4, CMT-5, and CMT-7 were able to bind more effectively than the known inhibitors, with CMT-3 and CMT-7 noted for their suitability in acting as an oral drug. The artwork that was created reflects the premise of the researchas well as the results noted. The piece essentially shows a split-view, with the left side of the brain being depicted. An Alzheimer’s affected brain is shown with an enlarged lateral and third ventricle and a β-amyloid plaque situated in the lateral ventricle. Around the plaque are CMT-4, 5, 7 a nd 3, each represented by a hand connecting to their unique chemical structure. The CMTs “bind” and pull apart the aggregation of β-amyloid protein fibrils. As the top half of the picture transitions into the lowerhalf, the focus of the drawing shifts from the scientific research to the premise of the research and why it is important. As Alzheimer’s affects older people, the woman who is shown is wrinkling and has white hair. In her eye, a memory of her family is reflected. However, it is just a memory and she cannot meaningfully connect it to herself or anyone around her. The CMTs, thus, provide hope for Alzheimer’s research in the future.
Figure: Molegro screencap of protein 2MXU with tetracycline in green in both fibril structures (top and middle) and dimer structure (bottom).
art of a scientist sponsors Burroughs Wellcome Fund Duke Graduate & Professional Student Council Power Plant Gallery at Duke University
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