"Working in science, I know that apparently objective, rational scientists readily ...describe beautiful theories or attractive visualisations of their subjects of study, or discuss neatly symmetrical molecules that are ‘aesthetically pleasing’. Despite scientists happily applying such subjective descriptions to the products of their rational enquiries, the rupture that C.P. Snow identified in his ‘Two Cultures’ lecture in 1959 is still lamented by those either side of the divide, nostalgic for earlier times when science and humanities –  and hence aesthetics –  were more closely aligned. Society accepts this long established cultural division as intractable, even irresolvable, blaming it on factors such as the education system. Instead, we praise the objectivity of contemporary science, and its steady embrace of thought and analysis in contrast to experience and emotion, attitudes better suited to the artist. But such sweeping generalisation of the contrasting traits of science and the arts denies the definition of aesthetics as a cognitive mode of experience, and hence the reality that an intrinsic aesthetic experience exists in the everyday practice of science. And in disregarding this, one could argue that it perpetuates the very idea of ‘Two Cultures’: solidifying the concept of a repeatable, objective world of science where subjective, personal aesthetic experience has no place."

"Aesthetics is not just about the way things look, but about our experience of them too. Alfred Tauber, philosopher and biochemist by training, describes three levels of aesthetic experience in both art and science: sensual, emotional/imaginative and analytical [4 ]. Good science is recognised as being both experiential and philosophical: in that, I would argue that it is certainly an aesthetic pursuit. Aesthetics need not just be the special world of the visual arts, but our experience of the everyday. An emerging field of aesthetic theory, called everyday or functional aesthetics looks at just this [5,6 ]. By broadening our understanding of aesthetics in science beyond the focus on beauty, we may find useful and thought provoking new experimental paths within science. The reviewers in this issue aim to do this: each examines aesthetic experience through the different senses in the practice of science. Collectively, this approach may help not only expand our understanding of aesthetics within science, but could also benefit its practice, suggesting new techniques and areas of study."

The issue contains reviews on non-visual aspects of science, from smell, to design, to touch, to synaesthetic experience in the practice of science. 

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg Editorial overview: Sensation: in search of aesthetic experience in chemical biology
Kenneth S Suslick Synesthesia in science and technology: more than making the unseen visible
Emily Candela Assembling an aesthetic
Christina M Agapakis and Sissel Tolaas Smelling in multiple dimensions
Glenn Parsons The aesthetics of chemical biology
Steven A Benner Aesthetics in synthesis and synthetic biology
Michele Forlin, Roberta Lentini and Sheref S Mansy Cellular imitations

Intel: The Tomorrow Project. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Christina Agapakis and Patrick Boyle in conversation with Brian David Johnson over (4 episodes), June 2012

This is a most interesting collaboration between designers and scientists to create biodesigned projects. – Bernardo Fernandez

This concept is very provocative, as always happens with science. You have to think where to stop before making life-changing discoveries. This concept opens up a new field of study that is really amazing. I really hope the authors are aware of all the risk factors. – Irina Kharseeva

This is IDEO, so this is classy and deft. It’s “design fiction” that would impress people in the boardroom. – Bruce Sterling

Synthetic biology can do many amazing things – provide fuel, feed us, but the general public fears genetically modified life. Typically you start with life and modify its behaviour by modifying its genetic content. So he is trying to build cells with nonliving components – constructing lifelike technologies using artificial structures that mimic life, intentionally incorporating features that are useful but don’t replicate or evolve, instead living for a finite period and die. Communication is key – artificial cells can already detect the presence of natural cells, but the goal is to get artificial cells to be able to emit a chemical signal in response, which will close the loop.

Wendell runs a lab at the University of California, San Francisco, focusing on synthetic biology, which in my opinion is likely to be the next technology wave after the social internet. What makes Wendell especially interesting is that, alongside his laboratory science, he is studying how design might impact his work and how his work impacts design. He has even had a team of industrial designers working with him in the lab on some experiments. He's going to be an important voice in this new science.

Read more...

Sheref Mansy then skyped in from his lab in Trento:

Sissel Tolaas was a speaker at the World Science Festival in New York in June, discussing her Synthetic Aesthetics collaboration with Christina Agapakis. Sissel says, "Smell is one of those senses where context can play a huge role. A fine cheese and a dirty foot share the same molecular smells, yet one is a delicacy and other is repulsive."

For their BO_BAD_CHE project, Christina and Sissel collected bacteria from people and used it to make 'human' cheese. "We decided to focus on cheese as a metaphor for the human organism", explains Sissel. These personalised dairy products challenge the old adage of "we are what we eat", and the boundary between what we make and who we are. Their collaboration continues: most recently, at the SB5.0 conference at Stanford in June they ran a live cheese-making session, building a library of cheeses made from bacterial cultures swabbed from the global synthetic biology community. 

Video by Fernan Federici & David Benjamin, StudioX, New York (GSAPP, Columbia University) as part of their ongoing collaboration.

Read more about the ongoing work of Will Carey and Adam Reineck from IDEO and Reid Williams from the Lim Lab at UCSF in this FastCompany article here.

Read the article here.

"Although traditional disciplinary boundaries are dissolving, the cultural differences between scientists and engineers remain strong. For biologists, genetic modification is a tool to understand natural systems, not an end in itself. Thus, making biological systems 'engineerable' — a goal of engineers in the field of synthetic biology — can seem pointless. Many biologists wonder why engineers fail to appreciate the intricate, beautiful and sophisticated designs that occur naturally. Engineers are often equally perplexed by biologists. Why are they so obsessed about the details of one particular system? Why don't they appreciate the value of replacing a complex and idiosyncratic system with a simpler, more modular and more predictable alternative? These misunderstandings can make for fascinating conversations, but they can also prevent mutually beneficial synergies."

Synthetic Aesthetics' resident and Harvard synthetic biologist Christina Agapakis in conversation with Maggie Koerth-Baker, discussing synthetic biology, design, cheese and women in science and blogging. Watch the discussion here!

A new exhibition, ‘April is the Cruellest Month ...’ inspired by T.S. Eliot's poem The Wasteland, brings together artists and scientists at ArtCell Gallery, Cambridge, UK. Combining cutting edge scientific cellular imaging and artistic vision, this show is an exploration and celebration of ‘dull roots’ with new potential.

From the exhibition website:

Jim Haseloff and Fernan Federici's amazing prints of fluorescent protein labelled transgenic plants, stained whole-mounts and 3D reconstructions of plant cell anatomy, offer an other-worldly beauty to contemporary microscopic cellular plant examination. Various staining techniques are used to label DNA, proteins, carbohydrates etc., and the digital controls of a confocal microscope allow for the clean separation of different fluorescent emission signals and the balancing of signal levels in different channels, leading to the production of images with intense clarity and colour.

Based in the Department of Plant Sciences at Cambridge University, the Haseloff Laboratory is pioneering synthetic biology, and has constructed a series of tools for controlling gene misexpression, and marking specific cells in growing plants. The lab is building a new generation of genetic circuits that incorporate intercellular communication, and could be used to generate self-organised behaviour at the cellular scale. These kind of circuits and cell-cell interactions play a key role in plant development and morphogenesis, and synthetic circuits will allow bold new approaches to reprogramming plant systems.

Synthetic Biology is an emerging field that employs engineering principles for constructing genetic systems. The approach is based on the use of well-characterised and reusable components, and numerical models for the design of biological circuits.