Angela Batuure Fro-Sci Extra Credit 2

On September 30th 2013, there was a two- part presentation on Biology vs. Art held in the North West Corner building. The Curiosity3 seminar addressed the intersection between Art and Science. Vunjak- Novakovic opened her demonstration with a basic explanation of the cell; life starts from a stem cell and there are many different cell types. The topic of her presentation was to explain what we could do to direct cells into the formation of a functional unit. We live in an aging population and we need more spare parts.

Life expectancy has been continually increasing. It went from 28 years (300 a.c) to 78 (present day). Bioengineering can help create these spare parts. One example is tissue engineering. For tissue engineering, human stem cells are gathered, you then you need to guide the cells. Put the cells into a scaffold and subject them into environmental stimulations. One example of this is stem cells living in a muscle environment. If the stem cells stay in the environment long enough, they will become muscle cells. Vunjak-Novakovic also discussed heart regeneration. The heart is very compact with tightly packed cells. Heart muscles never rest they are always working. There are 3 billion cells the heart beats 3 billion beats per lifetime pumping through 100,000 miles of blood vessels. Engineered heart muscles must learn synchronous contractions and how to beat.

Besides heart cell repair, cells can also be made to repair face bones. There are a multitude of reasons that may cause bone defects in the head and face such as: congenital abnormalities, surgery, trauma and physical and psychological damage. It only takes about 3 weeks to grow a bone from stem cells.

Oron Catts, the second speaker to present is a well-known artist and scientist. His work covers the growth of food from cells. Alexis Carrel, in 1912 put chicken organisms in artificial solutions. In 1916, Eduard Uhlenhuth said, Through the discovery of tissue culture we have so to speak, created a new type of body on which to grow the cell. The problem with growth outside of nature was that it was a widely shunned idea. For example, Cooney Island was the only place the idea of a chicken incubator was accepted. Ironically however it was part of the freak show. Tissue engineering has the potential to replace a culture of manufacturing to a culture of growing foods and fabrics. Catts discussed how he made semi living oracles with cells that he and his team grew in galleries. He and his team fed the cells everyday and had people write words to the dolls that they would whisper to the dolls every day. In essence, he was creating a living voodoo doll.

Catts also grew in vitro meat in his Disembodied Cuisine exhibit from 20012003. The meat cells were cultured in nutrient solution made up of cell plasma derived from a cow. The meat was then rotated and grew in 3 dimensions. The rotation factor was able to electrically stimulate and exercise the meat. When, on the

final day of the exhibit people were given the meat to try, many people spit it out because they said it tasted like jelly and fabric. He then collected the regurgitated meat to study.