Sunday, July 28, 2013

Nanotechnology + Space + Art (Things that Shaped My Childhood)

Before I even knew about Shepard, Armstrong, or the Apollo missions from elementary school, I was thrown into space culture as soon as I could digest mass media. 

Abandon the old life [of the Wild West and its cowboys].
Become a space ranger.
<http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:Buzz_Lightyear_out_of_the_box.jpg>
Their presence not only persisted through The Jetsons and Star Trek, but also into the heroes on my television screen that represented great achievement and even greater promise. 

One season of super spacemen wasn't enough.
<http://www.rangercentral.com/toys/toy-spfigures.htm>
Want to be amazing? Join NASA, that's it. And do what? Anything. Contribute anything to a space adventure and you have become someone incredible.

He actually got a response. NASA still needs people, apparently.
<http://geekologie.com/2013/07/7-year-old-sends-letter-to-nasa-expressi.php>
Well, you don't even have to be in space. You can pretend and it'll still be representative of the amazing.

Sadly, not as popular as its parodied "Space Oddity."
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4zV4pJ8MwM>

What's not to love about space? Even with all that's left to discover on Earth, there's even more out there.

But to get out there, we have master what we have here. A way to do that seems to be through nanotechnology, which was us thinking (really, really, REALLY) small instead of big...

Go home and accuse you parents why they never supported your aspirations to be a LEGO pilot.
<http://www.123inspiration.com/full-scale-star-wars-x-wing-fighter-built-out-of-5-million-lego-bricks/>
...or at least to get to something big. Professor Gimzewski's quoted Richard Feynman's "Put the atoms down where the chemist says, and so you make the substance" embodied nanotechnology in taking the smallest components of nature, atoms, and moving them around like our playthings, but with purpose.

This purpose can just be an exploration of our God-like manipulation of microscopic environments, headed by people like Paul Rothemund operating with DNA origami or inscribing encyclopedic volumes on pinheads to prove to each other time and time again we can do (almost) anything.

You can do this with DNA.
YES, YOU SPECIFICALLY.
<http://blog.treefeathers.com/2008/08/sho-creations-miniature-origami.html>
But we can't let creativity get away without practical applications. The Scanning Tunnelling Microscope is undoubtedly more impressive with its reconstruction of nanoscale surfaces than the light microscopes you get to play with in high school or the electron microscopes that you hear is weighing down your university's basement floors.

The microscopic surfaces of copper plates are ruthless.
<http://xkcd.com/315/>
And yet nanotechnology offers recreation of natural nanoparticle like gecko feet...


Want nanoscopic implants of spider-legs?
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALRXodkXnrA>

...blue morpho butterfly light mirror-like reflection as opposed to coloration by pigmentation...

Just like a butterfly.
Stings like a bee.
<http://www.hyperstealth.com/Quantum-Stealth/>
...personalized medicines that heal your ailing body in ways no drug or surgeon can - all because we can move our intelligence to a scale that we cannot be present at, but we can enact our presence on. 

Well, not yet.
*sigh* You're a true hero, Atom.
<http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/All-New_Atom_Vol_1_22>
The limitations of our natural bodies become a moot point when we can transcend them and change the microscopic world from within. Much like space is shown by contributors to Art and Zero Gravity to offer an escape from, or at least a defiance of, the world we've come to know for so long, so does nanotechnology.
The embracing of a nanotechnological world we must visualize and actively work our minds to grasp the abstract as explained by the Nanomeme Syndrome, is very applicable to our space endeavors as well. The great majority of humankind will not, for now, be able to personally obtain information about space first-hand and thus must rely on assumptions and the limited knowledge we remotely acquire. 

Notice that we take up a teeny, tiny fraction of the shaded box.
<http://xkcd.com/1071/>
From what we do know, space offers resources that is ours for the harvesting, as opposed to what the other residents of Earth would like a fair share of.

This tablet game is a training application for future asteroid-miners.
Really, half the game is mining for upgrade materials.
<http://www.mobygames.com/game/ipad/galaxy-on-fire-2/screenshots/gameShotId,538191/>
Even with what little we know about space, we follow the lead of those at Leonardo Space Arts and MARS Patent who exhibit art in space and thrust ourselves out there ready to see what happens. 

Be glad Bebo, and not Facebook, sent out thousands of other people's embarrassing pictures for aliens to laugh at.
<http://www.technewsdaily.com/2535-top-space-alien-communications.html>
Both worlds, though seemingly inaccessible by the fate nature has provided us and our size, is actually very much ours to invade. We will fill them with whatever versions of ourselves we may.

I move this to be the official mascot of the world.
<http://iwantcupcakes.tumblr.com/post/31735511735/blah-blah-blah-blah-me-me-me>
Maybe, someday, we might even become mediators and need to fuse the two worlds.
Bill Nye explaining how hive nanobots with lasers might take down an asteroid before it gets to us.
<http://youtu.be/Agdvt9M3NJA?t=5m20s>

 Sources
AsapSCIENCE. Could We Stop An Asteroid? Youtube, 2013. Feat. Bill Nye. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agdvt9M3NJA>

Comme d'habitude. "Blah, blah, blah, blah, me, me, me!". Tumblr, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://iwantcupcakes.tumblr.com/post/31735511735/blah-blah-blah-blah-me-me-me>

 Cramer, Guy. Quantum Stealth; The Invisible Military Becomes A Reality. HyperStealth, 2009. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.hyperstealth.com/Quantum-Stealth/>

 Darkseid01. All-New Atom 22.jpg. DC Wikia, 2010. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/File:All-New_Atom_22.jpg>

 Drake P. David Bowie's "Space Oddity". Youtube, 2006. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhSYbRiYwTY&feature=player_embedded>

Forde, Kathleen. DANCING ON THE CEILING: ART & ZERO GRAVITY. Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, 2010. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://zerogravity.empac.rpi.edu/>

 Geekologie. 7-Year Old Sends Letter To NASA Expressing His Desire To Go To Mars, Actually Receives A Response. Geekologie, 2013. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://geekologie.com/2013/07/7-year-old-sends-letter-to-nasa-expressi.php?

Gimzewski, Jim. Nanotech Jim pt 1. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7jM6-iqzzE&feature=player_embedded>

 Gimzewski, Jim. Nanotech Jim pt 2. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEp6t0v-v9c>

 Gimzewski, Jim. Nanotech Jim pt 3. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0HCNiU_108>

 Gimzewski, Jim. Nanotech Jim pt 4. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHCuZetAIhk>

 Gimzewski, Jim. Nanotech Jim pt 5. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OWc8nmHJmY>

 Gimzewski, Jim. Nanotech Jim pt 6. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKlViSKkPd0>

 Gimzewski, Jim; Vesna, Victoria. The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of fact & fiction in the construction of a new science. UCLA, n.d. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/02-03/JV_nano/JV_nano_artF5VG.htm>

Inspiration. Full Scale ‘Star Wars’ X-Wing Fighter Built Out of 5 Million LEGO Bricks. 123 Inspiration, 2013. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.123inspiration.com/full-scale-star-wars-x-wing-fighter-built-out-of-5-million-lego-bricks/>

 Julien, Pirou. Galaxy on Fire 2. Moby Games, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.mobygames.com/game/ipad/galaxy-on-fire-2/screenshots/gameShotId,538191/>

 The Leonardo Space Art Project Working Group. Leonardo Space Arts. The Leonardo Space Art Project Working Group, 1996. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://spaceart.org/leonardo/vision.html>

 The Mars Patent. The HRM_1.0n. The Mars Patent, n.d. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.mars-patent.org/hrm/hrm.htm> 

 NASA. NASA Homepage. Nasa, n.d. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.nasa.gov/>

OurHitmanDwarf. Spiderman-First wall climbing scene. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALRXodkXnrA>

 Pompenguin. Buzz Lightyear out of the box.jpg. Disney Wikia, 2013. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:Buzz_Lightyear_out_of_the_box.jpg>

R8dkid. Flight of the Conchords Ep 6 Bowie's In Space. Youtube, 2007. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4zV4pJ8MwM>

 Randommization. LEGO Mindstorm NXT Robot Is An Artist. Randommization, 2009. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://randommization.com/2009/05/06/lego-mindstorm-nxt-robot-is-an-artist/>

Ranger Central. Red Ranger Figures. Ranger Central, n.d. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.rangercentral.com/toys/toy-spfigures.htm>

 Rothemund, Paul. Paul Rothemund details DNA folding. TED, 2008.
Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_rothemund_details_dna_folding.html>

Tech News Daily. 10 Wildest Tries to Contact Aliens. Tech News Daily, 2011. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://www.technewsdaily.com/2535-top-space-alien-communications.html>

 TreeFeathers. Miniature Origami. TreeFeathers, 2008. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://blog.treefeathers.com/2008/08/sho-creations-miniature-origami.html>
Vesna, Victoria. Space pt 4. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ClKO6AJPo&feature=player_embedded>

 Vesna, Victoria. Space pt 5. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnSUHMXBmdg>

 Vesna, Victoria. Space pt6. Youtube, 2012. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYmOtFjIj0M>

 XKCD. Braille. XKCD, n.d. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://xkcd.com/315/>

 XKCD. Exoplanets. XKCD, n.d. Web. 28 Jul 2013. <http://xkcd.com/1071/>
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