Abstraction, not just mathematics, has its place in science as it does in art

Abstract Science?
Analysis as the Path to Abstraction
Mark Rothko paintingClick to Enlarge ImageA characteristic modus operandi in abstract art, from Russian constructivist times, has been the concentration on one or another component of the artistic whole. Issues of form—the center or the periphery, inclusion or exclusion, see-through or opaque, balance, color—are isolated. Ad Reinhardt’s beautiful all-red and all-black paintings are a fine example of this concentration. The contemplative process here can lead to an exploration of the emotional possibilities of just that formal element. One sees this motif at work in Klee’s abstract paintings, or in Rothko’s color fields (right). Roberto Bertoia, a colleague at Cornell, works out beautifully in small wood constructions the feelings of confinement, protection and communication (below right).
Robert Bertoia sculptureClick to Enlarge ImageOf course, science, from its Cartesian roots, has operated in just this way. If you want to understand something, take it apart, see how the pieces work, put it together (although too few people like to put things together …). Change only one variable at a time, if you can. If you want to see how a chemical reaction proceeds, write a mechanism, a sequence of elementary steps. Once the mechanism is recognized, have research programs develop on the pieces and extend the work. Taking things apart, as science does, is a move shared with abstract art. Roald Hoffmann.
(www.americanscientist.org)

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The Molecular Basis of Size Differences

Size differences account for a great deal of the diversity found in the animal kingdom, but we still have much to learn about how sizes are programmed. Generally, the cells of different animals are comparable in size, and all animals begin as a single cell. This leaves the number of cells accumulated as the main determinant of animal size. We can reasonably expect the genes controlling cell number to be conserved among animals. So it seems that size-determining genes must be deployed in the elephant in such a way that it amasses several hundred thousand times more cells than the mouse. Which are these genes and how do they control size? I asked this question in a more experimentally tractable context: How do body parts of a single animal become different sizes? Fingers, toes, and ribs are sets of structures whose members are similar in form but differ in size. Although we know that Hox transcription factors specify the identity of individual fingers, toes, and ribs, little is known about how their individual sizes are programmed. Michael A. Crickmore.
Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, 10065, USA.
E-mail: mcrickmore@rockefeller.edu

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Abstraction, not just mathematics, has its place in science as it does in art

Abstract Science?

a Japanese bottleClick to Enlarge ImageIs there an analogue in science to abstract art? A riposte might be, “Why should there be? Why ask science, so strongly tied to reality, to mimic the aesthetic games of the world of art?” Well, both art and science are created by human beings, and both are creative endeavors. So it might be interesting to look at any correspondences. No one-to-one mappings will be found, but let’s relax that criterion and search for non-literal, imaginative analogies. Roald H.offmann.  
(www.americanscientist.org)

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PERBANDINGAN DAY A IMUNISASI VAKSIN KUMAN ......

TUBERCULOSIS YANG DIMA TlKAN DENGAN PENYINARAN GAMMA DAN BCG PADA MARMOT YANG DIJANGKITI TUBERCULOSIS SECARA EKSPERIMENTIL *)Penyelidikan ini sebagian dibiayai 01eh Departemen Urusan Research Nasional. The immunizing effects of living BCG voccine, heat_killed tubercle bacilli, gamma_irradiated tubercle bacilli and living Mycobacterium smegmatis, have been investigated by comparing the degree of tuberculin allergy and the median survival time after chellenge infection in guinea pigs, 91% of the BCG_vaccinated guinea pigs developed strongly (mean size ¢ 3.64 mm) positive tuberculin reactions prior to infection, while 79% and 81% of the guinea pigs which received the heat_killed and the gamma irradiated tubercle bacilli gave smaller positive tub~rculin reactions. So did 57% of the animals receiving M.smegmatis. The median survival time of the BCG_vaccinated group and the group receiving gamma_irradiated vaccine was 73.0 days and 65.7 days as compared with 57.8 days in the group receiving heat_killed tubercle bacilli, 59.3 days in the M.smegmatis. inoculated group and 51.0 days in the unvaccinated control group. It seemed that the size of the tuberculin reaction prior to infection correlated with the degree of immunity induced by vaccination in guinea pigs. TAN THIAM HOK dan THE KIE SENG Bagian Mikrobiologi, Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Indonesia dan F. SUHADI Pusat Penelitian Pasar Jum'at, Badan Tenaga Atom Nasional.

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