HeLa are an immortal cell line first discovered in the cervical tumor of an African-American woman, Henrietta Lacks, in 1951. Henrietta was 31 years old and the mother of five children when she passed away, eight months after her diagnosis. While being tested and treated at Johns Hopkins hospital, a physician took a tissue sample [...]
Rene Descartes was a French philosopher and mathematician who established the idea that the soul exists as something immaterial and non-spatial, distinctly separate from the tangible substance of the body. In his writing, titled Discourse on the Method, he begins by establishing his first method, which would later become the [...]
Bio-Artist Marta De Menezes, has no specific background in biology, but her work explores a unique intersection from the world of science and the world of art. She takes scientific techniques and adapts them to the production of her artwork to try and contribute to the scientific research of the laboratory (Menezes 2007, 225). For [...]
Born in Bogota, Columbia in 1958, renowned artist Doris Salcedo completed her BA Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano in 1980 and continued on to earn an MA from New York University in 1984. She then moved back to Colombia and began teaching at the Universidad de Bogotá. Her experiences as a Colombian are extremely [...]
R.U.R. is a 1920 science fiction play written by Czech author, Karel Capek. The entire play takes place at the island manufacturing facility of Rossum’s Universal Robots. We are told the story of Old Rossum, who discovered a chemical similar to protoplasm. Rossum set out to create animals, to prove that God was not [...]
Brandon Joyce wants to see a game that will last the Ages. Cathexis is defined as an intense fixation on an object, idea, or desire. In his writing, Joyce ties together this idea of cathexis in something he refers to as “lifegames,” the practices we engage in on a daily basis to distract ourselves from [...]
The origin of monomyth archetype, or the hero's journey, can be attributed to American mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell. In his novel The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), he discusses this notion: "A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive [...]
UKIYO-E, 1808, NINGYO, KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI Immortality and consumption are often intertwined, the myth of Yaoya Bikuni (translated into the 800 year nun/priestess) is one such instance. The Japanese myth tells the story of a fisherman who catches a strange fish, he then serves it at a dinner he is hosting. There are different [...]
TIM is a work by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye that sold for over 100,000 euros in 2008. The work took approximately 40 hours to complete and has been showcased in museums around the world including the Louvre and MONA. TIM is a tattoo. For now, a man named Tim Steiner is the frame for TIM. [...]
The Last Question is a short story by Isaac Asimov that tackles concepts about whether or not entropy, the irreversible tendency for everything to die and deteriorate, can be stopped or reversed. In this work of science fiction, Asimov gives readers fleeting glimpses into the evolution of humanity as it learns to harness the power [...]