Turtle slide:)

Environmental Art: part 2

I just recently finished my first lost wax casting project. Lost wax casting, is a process were you carve an item out of jewelers wax. Then submerge it in a flask full of special high temperature plaster, called investment. The flask then goes into a kiln, where the wax is burned out, leaving an empty space where the wax used to be. Finally, the flask is attached to the arm of a centrifuge, where molten metal is forced into the flask by centrifical force.

I carved this ring because of a lizard that I saw on the corkscrew field trip which inspired me.:)
This was also a good lesson in material resources, because I discover that the gold in this ring was worth $200.00, Yikes :) 

Environmental Art:

Being both a scientist and an artist, my art seems to always get filled with influences from whatever I am currently studying in my science classes. Recently, I have been getting into jewelry making, which was significantly helped by the fact that this past year, the arts department was given $20,000 worth of jewelry equipment and gemstones. Anyways, I have really gotten to love casting organic items in silver. Here are some of the pieces I recently made.

On the left: A pendant with a piece of fossilized coral, that I cast the imprint of in sterling silver and then added a black opal and some lapis lazuli.




Bottom: Several partially complete projects, including a silver dragonfly, acorn cap, and carved turtle.

The battle with student government: part 2

Finally, after 12 hours of sitting through senate hearings, our funding bill process was completed. But what we ended up with was only half a bill. The other half was for SCUBA diving gear. Which would allow us to do  research on local reef ecosystems. However, the senators couldn't understand how diving research would fit with our clubs mission of helping the environment. Again, we really desperately need people in our student government who know at least something about science and the environment; if our school is going to genuinely succeed with its mission of  becoming an eco-friendly college.

The battle with student government:

As I mentioned before I am part of the Eco-Action club on campus. Recently we changed our classification from an honors service club, to a registered student organization, which meant basically that we were open to all students and that we could petition funds from student government. As treasurer of the club, it was up to me and the president to learn the process of submitting a funding bill before student senate. It wasn't long into the process that I learned how miserably miss-represented the students of FGCU are by their student government.     
   Not only are 98% of the senators part of a fraternity or sorority. But there was literally only one senator who had any affiliation with a field of science; and that was only with a bio minor. As my friend Sarah said, after attending a senate meeting (quoting Zizek) "I am burdened with the truth."
      Because of what I saw, I was driven to apply to fill an empty senate space. My interview question was
"If I could compare my personality to any flavor of ice cream, what would it be?" REALLY...our student government, which controls 3 million dollars, acts like a high school cheer-leading team!!!! After that, I was not surprised that the sorority girl running against, me got the position.

Thoughts on Alas Babylon

Although I found reading Zizek to be like pulling teeth, I really did thoroughly enjoy reading Alas Babylon. The part I most enjoyed was wondering what it would be like, to try to survive an event like that with the technology we have today. I can't help but think that although many of our gadgets would be completely useless, some of our modern devices would make surviving significantly easier. Like solar power for example; even if most people don't have solar panels laying around. In a post apocalypse Florida, there are probable four or five down every street, powering road equipment. Grab these and some rechargeable batteries (or better yet, ultra-capacitors) and you are set with power for life.:) The main thing that annoyed the engineer in me with this book, was that the characters never figured out that they could simply take the alternator out of the car, and hand crank it, in order to generate power for the car batteries. Anyways definitely should assign Alas Babylon for future classes.

Nickel Iron Batteries:

Another project I have been working on, which related to alternative energy is the nickel iron battery. Nickel iron batteries are really awesome rechargeable batteries, that were invented by Thomas Edison; for use in early electric cars. Edison's batteries are not well known, because after the auto industry fully embraced the combustion engine; Edison's batteries received little notoriety. They are however, truly amazing inventions and in some aspects, still outperform modern batteries of today. Their biggest attribute, is their amazing long life. Original batteries built by Edison's factory are still functioning perfectly well today. The main difference compared to the batteries of today was that the active ingredients,(nickel and iron oxide) do not dissolve or break down from contact with their electrolyte. Which means that the chemical reactions are reversible without degrading the electrode material.
       Anyways, hardly any research has been done to find ways to improve upon Edison's original design, not that it needs much improvement. The main drawback is their energy to weight ratio, is still on the heavy side. Being comparable to lead acid batteries used in cars. So I have been experiment with different variations to Edison's design, to see what I can find out. Chemistry is new to me, so progress is slow but at least I managed to build functional batteries which is a start.