Event #3 - Sam Wolk Presentation

For my third event I attended Sam Wolk's presentation on phenotypes, genes, and predator-prey interactions. Having not studied anything remotely related to biology since high school, I walked into the event thinking it would be a bit over my head. However, I soon found that the graphical representations Wolk created made it easily understandable to even non-science majors like myself.

For the first portion of the presentation, Wolk provided a graph to help us not only understand, but visually conceptualize why stronger phenotypes of genes are passed down while weaker ones die out. The graph used genes as columns and individuals with different phenotypes as rows. Wolk added red dots over the portions of the screen where the phenotype helped the organism survive. The dots began to cluster around certain phenotypes as time elapsed, helping the audience to visualize what exactly happens as certain phenotypes pass on while others die out. Tying in perfectly with our class, the artistic simulation helped serve  to explain a difficult scientific concept.

Next, Wolk ran a simulation on what happens in a predator-prey situation. In the simulation, the prey were represented by blue dots while predators were represented by red dots. The most amazing aspect of this portion of the presentation was that a computer program was able to simulate a real life predator-prey scenario. Once the simulation began, the blue dots immediately formed groups upon learning the presence of the red dots. However, unable to reproduce and defend themselves adequately, the red dots eventually formed large enough clusters to overtake the blue dots.

Sam Wolk's presentation echoed the common theme throughout our class that art and science can be used together to accomplish something greater than when they are taken on their own. By utilizing an artistic representation of phenotypes, genes, and predator-prey interactions, Wolk was able to make the scientific concepts both fascinating, and easily understandable. Wolk appealed both to our sense of logic as well as our sense of aesthetics. The combination of art and science reflects the essence of our desma class, serving as a perfect culmination of everything I have learned over the past quarter. I would have highly recommended Sam Wolk's presentation to anybody both in and out of the desma 9 class.

Red Dots clustering around phenotypes