Photography: "Vigil"

"Vigil"

Available on FineArt America

Photography: "Universal Laws"

Available for purchase at FineArt America.

As the Singularity Approaches

Science lately is blurring the line between biology and technology. Harvard has made two startlingly large advances recently: they managed to use DNA to store 700 terabytes of data, and they have created synthetic (read: cyborg) flesh. DNA is essentially the original computer code: it stores complex information in different arrangements of four different molecules, called A, G, C, and T for simplicity. Scientists assigned zeroes and ones to these letters to simulate binary code, the language on which computers run. Using this makeshift binary code, they were able to store 700 terabytes in just one gram of DNA (for comparison, the first 4 terabyte hard drive for computers was just manufactured in 2011, and the average MacBook Pro has less than one terabyte of hard drive space).

Along with this new DNA-as-disk-drive ability, Harvard also melded electronics with living cells to create honest-to-God cyborg flesh. The human body reacts to electrical impulses fired by the brain, something loosely replicated by these part-biological, part-technological tissue cultures. While the half-organic tissue can’t yet react to the electrical impulses, the technology allows for close monitoring of the tissue. The short term implications are earlier warning for medical conditions caused by inflammation, monitoring pre-cancerous cells, or even tracking drug absorption and measuring the effectiveness of medications. The long-term implications are on a much grander scale.

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How We Remember

They say the 9-11 attacks of 2001 were our generation’s Pearl Harbor or Kennedy assassination. It seems that everyone over 18 has a story about where they were that day, when their world changed so abruptly.  I was in eight grade, and I remember teachers interrupting my science class to whisper to each other.  It wasn’t until third period history, at 9:45, after the planes had hit, that they told us what happened.  We watched the news all through class that morning, and we saw the towers fall. It was the first time I’d ever heard the name “Osama bin Laden.”  It’s hard to believe, now, that there was a time before bin Laden, and before the War on Terror.

Photography: "Good Vibes at Venice Beach"

"Good Vibes at Venice Beach"  Available at Fine Art America.

A Man Beyond

The great state of Ohio has produced 25 NASA astronauts. Or, as I heard it phrased for most of my childhood: “what is it about this state that makes people want to flee the Earth?” Every day, I pass the John Glenn School of Public Affairs on my way to class at Ohio State University. Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth and an Ohio native, went on to become a memorable senator and public leader. It is a reminder that Ohio is not only home to a large number of astronauts, but to some of the best-known. One of the greatest of these Ohio astronauts, Neil Armstrong, passed away at the end of August. But unlike Glenn, Armstrong chose to live his post-spacefaring days as far from the limelight as possible.

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