scissors and glue-pot Last night a friend invited me to a Genetics Fair for a class she was taking:

Taught by a molecular biologist and a scholar of digital communications, this class encourages students to consider the commonality in all human understanding and observation. Students will read scientific and critical theoretical explorations of life as emergent phenomenon, attend a series of lecture/discussions, and design and undertake a research project exploring the topic of emergence.

Apparently the assignment for the final project was "Do Anything," as there was a more random assortment of displays than I ever could have imagined: * a meticulously-printed t-shirt reading "FUCK CORPORATE ONTOTHEOLOGY" [yes, I had to look it up, too] * a number of tri-fold displays with titles like "Genetically Altering Genes," "SCOTT x 2 = 2 SCOTTS," "Genetic Altering Could Alter You," "Cloning a human would be playing God," "I am not this body," "Is humanities [sic] drive to escape Malthusian disaster dooming all creation," and the delightfully candid "Why Is Science So Boring?" * several explanations of cellular-automata * "Art in America" -- a CD with 14 songs each representing a different slice of Americana * a couple of hastily-constructed collages * a cat-human-hybrid statue and a couple of fish-human hybrids too * an enormous photomosaic of someone's sister * an interesting exploration of sociobiology After allowing people to look at the exhibits, the class's instructor gave a speech wherein he praised his students, remarking that in the future all science would be this interdisciplinary. As a scientist-in-training, I will keep my scissors and glue-pot ready.