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      Being a psychobiology major, I have taken several classes that placed heavy emphasis on neuroscience, yet from this week materials, I have grown a stronger interest in it after learning about “neuroculture.” According to Frazzetto and Anker, neuroculture encompasses the dialogues that neuroscientists make with artists and the public with a focus on how “neuroscience knowledge partakes in our daily lives, social practices, and intellectual discourses” (Frazzetto and Anker). I believe that an example representing neuroculture is the brainbow––a technique to distinguish neighboring neurons in the brain using fluorescent protein markers (Weissman). This is because brainbow not only is a method used by neuroscientists to understand neural pathways in the brain, but the product that brainbow produces is also considered an artwork as shown in the image below of a zebrafish’s neurons being fluorescently labeled. Brainbow labeling in zebrafish https://w...

       Bioart allows artists to express their creativity through transforming organisms into artworks using biological techniques. From Professor Vesna’s series of videos about the various contributions of bioartists including Joe Davis and Adam Zarestky, one can confidently say that biological technologies have helped increase the public attention in regards to art (Vesna). This is because bioart can be representative of the appreciation of artists’ infinite creativity or it can be representative of the controversy between the scientific community and the artistic community. Joe Davis's audiomicroscope to record audio frequency signature of microorganisms https://www.elsevier.com/connect/creating-art-with-genes-and-bacteria             SymbioticA is an artistic laboratory in Australia, allowing artists to have a place to be engaged in science. The fact that it is the first official group to work on bi...

         I was interested in attending this event because I am curious to find out about the kind of research that a social scientist focuses on as I have only been exposed to research of scientists in neuropsychology and biochemistry. Clemence Pinel, a social scientist of bioscience and biomedicine at King’s College London, presented on her research in answering the question: “what do the environment and the epigenetics allow labs to do?” (Pinel). Throughout her presentation, she elaborated that collaboration, mobility, and profitability are avenues that will allow for the expansion of epigenetic research. She was able to determine these three avenues through extensive research about the influence of the environment on epigenetics. For example, she discovered that the collaboration of laboratory materials and data between two laboratories has lead to their success of proposing a biomarker that helps identify chronic back pain to large pharmaceutical companies ...