Week 4: Medicine, Technology, and Art

              The human body is doubtlessly a highly complex and intricate system, and the challenging endeavor of exploring it has allowed us to gain insight on what we’re made of and where we come from. I found Donald E. Ingber’s The Architecture of Life fascinating in its discussion of the cells. What stood out most to me was the explanation of what he called “molecular geodesic domes,” which are in essence the result of “tensegrity”. This idea resonated with me almost immediately because it occurred to me that it is the biological analog to the Principle of Least Action in physics. The Principle of Least action, which led to Lagrangian mechanics and Calculus of Variations, seeks to determine the path a mechanical system will take by minimizing the “action” of the motion. In Ingber’s terms, this would be similar to “offering a maximum amount of strength for a given amount of building materials” for the geodesic domes. It was amazing to me that life on a molecular scale is also ruled by the same principles that guide a rolling ball.

The Principle of Least Action will minimize the "action" of a mechanical system. Any path taken other than the red one in the center will be less efficient, similar to the mathematics behind the geodesic.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Least_action_principle.svg/2000px-Least_action_principle.svg.png

                When technology meets life we get things like MRI machines, reconstructive surgery, heart transplants, cures for diseases, vaccines, among countless other things. I find MRI machines especially interesting because they perform a task that would once be considered witchcraft. Silvia Casini describes her surreal experience in such a machine and claims looking at the examination photos was like standing in “front of a mirror.” This forces me to think just what kind of “mirrors” we’ll have fifty or a hundred years from now.

Is it possible that scientists and engineers will invent technology similar to an X-Ray (but less harmful) that can be implemented in a phone for everyday people to use? There are already simple apps for smartphones that allow users to measure their heart rate and blood pressure.
http://culturax.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/on2_16655ced2.jpg

A slightly different but equally fascinating technological innovation is mitochondrial DNA (henceforth mtDNA) lineage tracking. You can now send in your sample of mtDNA and soon thereafter receive information regarding where your ancestors are from and in which migrations groups they belonged to. One setback of mtDNA, however, is that it only includes DNA from the maternal side, so the ancestral history of the father are non-existent in the tracing of the lineage. While not perfect, this is nevertheless a prime example of technology coming together with the bio-medical field to help us better understand who we are as humans and how we got here. 

Shows the various migration "haplogroups" by maternal lineage as discovered through mtDNA, a 21st century work of art as well as science.
https://www.ancestrybydna.com/library/images/map-maternal-zoom.jpg

Works Cited:

Engelking, Carl. "DNA Test Can Trace Your Ancestral Origins Back 1,000 Years - D-brief." Dbrief. 02 May 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2014/05/02/dna-test-can-trace-your-ancestral-origins-back-1000-years/#.VT1gpCFViko>.

"Euler-Lagrange Equation: Chapter 2"  Web. <http://mathsci.kaist.ac.kr/~nipl/am621/lecturenotes/Euler-Lagrange_equation.pdf>.

Feynman, Richard. "The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol. II Ch. 19: The Principle of Least Action." The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol. II Ch. 19: The Principle of Least Action. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_19.html>.

Groleau, Rick. "Tracing Ancestry with MtDNA." PBS. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/neanderthals/mtdna.html>.

"Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)." Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.nibib.nih.gov/science-education/science-topics/magnetic-resonance-imaging-mri>.