What? A fun-filled evening of videos, skits and art inspired by life sciences. Presenters will take questions from the audience.
When? Thursday, April 26, at 7 p.m.
Where? McGovern Auditorium, Whitehead Institute, Nine Cambridge Center (view directions)
Who can attend? Anyone
How much does it cost? The event is free

Program will include, in no particular order:

Harvard scientists Alain Viel and Robert Lue will show their "Inner Life of a Cell" video, which includes this image.

"Inner life of a cell" video

Alain Viel and Robert Lue, scientists at Harvard, will show an animation they produced with XVIVO. The video, which received a coveted spot in the Siggraph 2006 Electronic Theater, illustrates mechanisms that allow a white blood cell to sense its surroundings and respond to an external stimulus.

Paintings that explore the tension between rationally ordered and organic systems

Sarah Slavick is a Visiting Faculty member of the Studio Art Department and Director of the Jewett Gallery at Wellesley College. She also serves on the faculty at the Art Institute of Boston. She has an exhibit at the DeCordova Museum that explores the tension between rationally ordered and organic systems in brightly colored paintings and works on paper.

Skits by graduate students

MIT graduate students will perform three skits—a presidential debate between DNA, RNA and protein; a police drama on immune cells and bacteria; and a Real World segment with young proteins as characters.

MIT graduate student Danielle Cook France will show a number videos, including one of Vorticella cells (such as those shown above).

Videos from the Matsudaira lab

Graduate student Danielle Cook France will present a series of videos from Whitehead Member Paul Matsudaira's lab, which develops and exploits imaging technologies for analyzing macromolecules in cells and tissues.

Paintings stemming from scientific metaphors

Artist Judith Ellen Sanders will present a slide show of her work. Like two threads leading to the same center, Judith's backgrounds in science and art have led her into the studio to depict the wonderful metaphors she encountered in her graduate science classes and research. She likens her studio to a laboratory, her paints and brushes to test tube and microscope, as she explores visual metaphors of transformation, growth and renewal.

Stem cell video clip

David Paterson will show a clip from his film titled "Stem Cells: The Promise." Paterson has produced numerous science and medical documentaries for the BBC, the UK's Channel Four, WGBH, National Geographic, Discovery and Japan's NHK network.

Paintings inspired by science

Sam Tan is an emerging artist based in the Boston area. He currently has works at Bernard Toale Gallery in Boston, as well as Pierogi in Brooklyn. Recently, his art was displayed at Boston Biomedical Research Institute.

MTV (Molecular TV)

A scientist will show short protein music videos.

Last updated April 10, 2007.