A exposição “Azulejos que ensinam” estará aberta ao público de 17 de Maio a 28 de Setembro na biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra.
A exposição é composta por um conjunto de azulejos baseados em “Os Elementos” de Euclides e datados do século XVII (ou posterior), e ilustram os teoremas geométricos deste matemático.
Aconselha-se a visita.
nota: ver também o post http://dererummundi.blogspot.com/2007/05/azulejos-que-ensinam.html
Rodrigo Brito is an amateur photographer as well as a PhD student in Chemistry. Take a look at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rodrigobrito/sets/72157594409729904/
to see some very nice (science related) pictures.
Images, videos, and sounds resulting from research in science as well as creative works from any department incorporating tools or concepts from science were put to contest in the Princeton University. Entries were judged based on aesthetic excellence as well as scientific or technical interest.
Below you can find an example, but I recommend everyone to take a look at the all gallery here.
Fairies
Margaret E. Bisher and Soyeon Im
Department of Molecular Biology
The “fairies” in the image above occurred unexpectedly in a sample of protein filaments. They were visible in addition to the expected rope-like structures. The “fairies” showed up again a few weeks later, in other protein filament samples. They are likely staining artifacts: a result of the stain precipitating on the carbon film that supports the sample. These odd structures form randomly and very intermittently. The original protein filament sample itself was in a solution or buffer that was absorbed onto a grid (a mesh-like structure 3mm in diameter) with a carbon support film across it, approximately 50 Angstroms thick. The sample was washed with water and then stained with 1% uranyl acetate. It was then viewed at 80kV on a Zeiss 912AB transmission electron microscope equipped with an Omega energy filter.
“ Ferrofluid is a very interesting material originally developed by NASA it has now found itself been used for a whole range of devices including dampers for controlling and stabilizing large building that move around in the wind. Whats also amazing is that they have such lovely visual qualities when magnetized. “
Text and video taken from http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7932498063864415301
Sachiko Kodama
4 min 16 sec - Jan 21, 2006
www.interactivearchitecture.org
you can find another post bout the subject at http://coronene.blogspot.com/
In the University of Porto, Portugal, a group of researchers is developing new materials for being used in the construction of musical instruments.
Using the example of the guitar, the general idea is to keep the acoustic properties of conventional instrument at the same time using materials that are more resistent to temperature variations, humidity and structural deformation. This should result in a more precise and durable tunning. Some of the materials that have been tested are (based on) carbon and glass fibers.
Also the piano, clarinet and percursion instruments have deserved some atention.
The project is called IDEA.M and has been developed by FEUP (Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto)/ INEGI.
source: http://www.cienciahoje.pt/
http://jpn.icicom.up.pt/2005/10/21/feup_constroi_instrumentos_do_futuro.html
(note: unexplainably I couln’t find any links about the project in english. If I do, I will later update this post… )
The first time the work of Lionel Moura was brought to my attention, my first reaction was: “It is an interesting exercise but is it art?”. Then, as now, I somehow feel that art implies some kind of intelectual process by the creator of the work. One must ask: is a set of totally random lines created by robots a work of art? Or in the same line of thought, when does a broken glass bottle ends being trash and becomes being something worth to be shown in a museum of modern art? Anyway if the artistic community takes him seriously who am I to say his is not art. I’m not arguing “if it is nice to look at”. My doubts are about the process of the artistic creation.
This question is completely put aside on other work of the artist such has in the “section” Voronoi paintings.
Anyway, the best way to get to know his work is to go to his own web page and browse around the site. There you can find the extensive list of examples of the work by the artist (paintings created by robots with some kind of “artificial intelligence”, the paintings based on the work of Voronoi and many other creations.). Texts about his ideas and concepts about art and the cv are also available.
Check it out. It’s worth it.
For the past 200 years violin makers around the world have sought to produce violins that would rival those of Stradivari and Guarneri made during 1700–50. Now, biochemists say the key to the instrument’s sweet sounds come not only from their construction but also from chemicals used to treat wood.
“A team of scientists lead by Joseph Nagyvary of Texas A&M University, College Station, used nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopy to analyse the chemical makeup of wood in antique and modern-day instruments.” This work has been publihsed in Nature (see reference: Nagyvary j., DiVerdi j. a., Owen N. L.& Dennis Tolley H., . Nature, 444 . 565 (2006).)
source:
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/061127/full/061127-7.html
See also http://www.rsc.org/Education/EiC/issues/2005July/violins.asp for more information.
other references about the subject:
1. J. Nagyvary, Chem. & Eng. News, 23 May, 1988.
2. J. Nagyvary, The Chemical Intelligencer, 1996, 2(1), 24.
3. D. W. Haines, The Catgut. Acoust. Soc. Newslet., 1979, 31, 23.
4. V. Bucur, Acoustics of wood. New York, London: CRC, 1995.
5. S. F. Sacconi, The ‘secrets’ of Stradivari. Cremona, Italy: Libreria del Convegno, 1972.
6. C. Y. Barlow et al, Nature (London), 1988, 332, 313.
7. L. Cremer, The physics of the violin. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1983.
“For me it remains an open question whether [this work] pertains to the realm of mathematics or to that of art.”
M.C. Escher
It could not be any other way. The first post on a “Category” called “Science and art” must be dedicated to M. C. Escher.
If you don’t know his work you just have to browse through the M. C. Escher official website where you can find a large number of works by the artist, a biography, bibliography, an extensive list of related sites…
For those who may already know some of his work my sugestion is, after going to the official
website, 
to go to following links:
The mathematical art of M. C. Escher
These are two sites that present the mathematics and concepts behind the some of the works.
jmgs
pgomes
filipefernandes