January 19 Day 317: A Conference Illustrated

My husband is attending the virtual Bacterial Locomotion and Signal Transduction (BLAST) 2021 conference this week (beginning at 6 am PST) . They have enlisted a biologist/artists to create artwork in response to the talks that they attend. Mark and I are collaborating on #LuxArt contributions. It’s all rather “meta” since it uses bacteria as a medium to draw images of talks about bacteria. For those unfamiliar with luminous bacterial art, it’s like painting with cloudy water on jello. An overnight incubation period is required until it glows in the dark with living light.

The cover image is our joint contribution of speaker Howard Berg who discussed bacterial chemotaxis and motility. The brighter line follows the path of a twiddling (not tumbling) bacterium. Artists post in Twitter with the hashtag #BLASTSciArt. Here are other Howard Berg inspired art.

It’s a clever idea and an interesting way to keep people more engaged during a virtual conference. Do you think mathematicians would jump on this band wagon if given the opportunity?

Published by Jenny Quinn

Mathematician. Mother. Wife. Leader. I am the Executive Director of Seattle Universal Math Museum after many years working as a professor of mathematics at the University of Washington Tacoma. Mother of Anson and Zachary. Wife to Mark. President of the Mathematical Association of America 2021-2022. Past-President of MAA 2023.

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