Jonathan Holt DESMA 9

  Event 1: Why Maize Should Be Capitalized by Alvaro Azcarraga      Two weeks ago I attended a lecture by Alvaro Azcarraga, where he talked about many subjects related to farming and horticulture, ranging from the historical and cultural impacts of Maize to the diverse plant life that lives on its own very streets. Azcarraga started his lecture by speaking about Maize and why it should be ‘capitalized.’ He did not mean in economic terms, and actually stressed that there is a big difference between the cultural aspects of Maize and the economic side of the crop, which should be referred to as corn. The importance of Maize was made clear by Alvaro, who showed how the plant has above-ground roots that can sequester nitrogen from the environment. Not only is Maize unique in this aspect, but a disease that harms Maize called Ustilago Maydis that creates tumor growths on Maize has been studied and found to help scientists in understanding tumorous growths. According to Al...

    The fields of art and medicine are often deemed separate on the surface, yet they are more connected than we presume, which was evident after this week’s lectures and readings. One prime example of how the two fields work together is in the practice of plastic surgery, which combines both art and medicine. Originally developed by Indian’s in 800 B.C. to treat wounded soldiers, and popularized after gruesome and scarring wars such as World War 1, the practice of plastic surgery has become a very interesting art form within the field of medicine. Soldiers from WW1 who had Plastic Surgery (from National Army Museum)      Performed by medically educated and trained doctors around the world, plastic surgery goes beyond medicine and into the world of art. Often these plastic surgeons are even regarded more as artists than doctors, as told by Philippa Snow in her article on plastic surgery, who says “ anybody who performs surgeries, or injections, has to be a ...

          The development of robots and technology within the world of art has always been a subject of debate. While the development of robots and their abilities has deeply progressed within the last century, it has not always been welcomed with open arms. One aspect of robotic development that has conflict within the art world is the impact of robots upon the uniqueness of art. Walter Benjamin, a philosopher and critic, famously argued on the subject of an industrialized world and art by saying that the two were negatively related as industrialization made art lose its authenticity. When art is mass-produced by machines in factories, it may be true that it loses value in comparison to hand-crafted pieces by live artists. Despite this, art and robots also can help each other. In fact, an artificially intelligent robot named AARON, developed at the University of California, San Diego, has been capable of learning from human artist mentors to create its own...

Often math and art are seemed to oppose one another, however, the reality is that they are complements, not enemies. Ideas such as the 4th dimension frequently require the combination of art and math to conceptualize and study. The idea of the 4th dimension is detailed very interestingly in the film and reading Flatland , where a two-dimensional character struggles to comprehend and then explain to his peers the concept of a third dimension. Although this may just seem like a story to us, it is a great example of how literature and film can tackle hard mathematical concepts and convey them using the arts. And while the characters of Flatland struggle to conceptualize and accept the third dimension, it is a great analogy for our own society’s struggle to grasp the 4th dimension. This struggle is often thought of to be a mathematical problem, but as Henderson explains in his article on the 4th dimension, “in the development of new metaphors for space artists, physicists, and mathematici...

        As a Business Economics major, I feel tied to both worlds of the two cultures. Only since fall 2019 has Business Economics been considered a STEM major at UCLA, as it had been previously classified as a Social Science. This change of classification did not change many of the courses required for the class but rather highlights how Business Economics can be identified with North or South Campus, with STEM or Social Sciences, or with one culture or another.  "The Economics Building at UCLA" If you asked my personal opinion of which culture described by C.P. Snow, Scientists or Artists, my major belonged to, I would answer Scientists. Although Business Economics might not delve deep into math, physics, or chemistry like a typical STEM major, it deals with the study of the economy in a scientific manner much like a typical STEM major. The decisions that consumers make, the ways our economies are measured, and the ideas like the laws of supply and...