SantaFe.com | March 17, 2010

The Art and Science of Systems Biology

Arts & Culture | March 17, 2010

Santa Fe Complex will host “The Art and Science of Systems Biology” a two-day public event scheduled for March 26 and 27, at 632 Agua Fria from 4:30 pm on Friday through 9 pm on Saturday.

This event, which is focused on exploring biological complexity, features sessions for adults and kids of all ages–with lectures, exhibits, interactive experiments, and workshops.

Admission is free and open to the public, but online registration is required for the receptions scheduled for 4:30 to 5:30 pm each day. For full details about the event, visit the Santa Fe Complex website.

According to Dr. Janet Oliver, a researcher in the University of New Mexico Cancer Center and Director of the New Mexico Center for the Spatiotemporal Modeling of Cell Signaling, “This event reflects some of the work happening today in systems biology–an emerging field at the intersection of biology, mathematics, engineering, and the physical sciences-which has the potential for major impact on all our lives.”

Highlights of the two-day event include:

Evening Lectures

On Friday at 5:30 pm, Drs. Garrett M. Odell and Victoria E. Foe, of the Center for Cell Dynamics in Friday Harbor, Washington, will explore the topic “How the sea urchin embryo gets its cleavage furrows (in the right place)” and explain the long-standing mystery of how a parent cell divides to produce two daughter cells. The lecture comprises a sequence of pictures and movies that border on art.

On Saturday at 5:30 pm, Dr. Bridget S. Wilson, of the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, will speak on “Journey through the Cell” and present a survey of imaging technologies that provide 3D views of cells and cellular compartments reminiscent of Hollywood’s 1966 film “Fantastic Voyage.”

Workshops for Kids of All Ages

On Saturday from noon to 4 pm, the event will host workshops organized by local scientists on nanoscience, agent-based modeling, and imaging. The nanoscience workshop features interactive experiments for kids of all ages and is part of a national network of educational events designed to reach under-represented audiences in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Fulldome Projection

Lumenscape/UNM ARTS Lab will host dome projections of educational animations like those seen at DomeFest or like Molecularium’s trip through a snowflake or closeup look at the molecular machinery of a living cell.
Exhibition of Visualization Challenge Winners
On both evenings, the event features an exhibition of winning pieces from the 2009 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge, an annual competition sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Science magazine.

The Art and Science of Systems Biology is sponsored by the New Mexico Center for Spatiotemporal Modeling of Cell Signaling, the New Mexico Consortium, the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the National Science Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Science magazine, the University of New Mexico Cancer Center, the University of New Mexico Nanoscience & Microsystems Program, and the Santa Fe Complex.

About Santa Fe Complex

The Santa Fe Complex brings together teams of creative scientists, technologists, and artists to solve complex problems to meet business, government, and social needs. Combining talents across disciplines, the Complex has helped the City of Santa Fe model escape routes for its citizens in the event of forest fires, the city of Venice plan canal traffic to minimize the wakes that damage the city’s architecture, and the San Francisco Department of Public Health identify the movement of troubled youths through their social services network.

The mission of the Complex is to create a collaborative workspace that fosters applied complexity science through interdisciplinary education, outreach, and development of innovative technologies to address real-world problems, enable social cooperation, and create economic opportunities.

The Complex is located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a renowned center of research in complexity science. Santa Fe has also long been famous as a center for the traditional arts and is now becoming a hotbed of innovative forms of artistic expression resulting from the crossover between art and technology.

Limited parking is available in the Complex parking lot, which is accessible via Romero Street. From Agua Fria, take Romero Street southbound (it’s one-way). When Romero opens into a two-way street, turn right into the Complex parking lot. Additional parking is available in the city parking garage at the Railyard.

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Source: SantaFe.com