Silk

Nick Erickson specializes in stage movement, acting, and dance. He and his dancers dance in the air with silk. Suspended from the ceiling, they create intricate kinetic sculptures. Mike Ferro is an entomologist. He has also been working with some intricate silk designs – as he tells us about the many different types of spiders around the world. This Sci-Art Conversation wrapped up with Nick Erickson demonstrating a silks pose called “The Spider” and teaching audience members a few moves on the silks. (February 22, 2011)

String Theory vs. LQG

What is String Theory? LSU Physicist Jorge Pullin and Stanford Physicist Sean Hartnoll explain and debate String Theory versus Loop Quantum Gravity (for a general audience). Raul Gomez and Marcelo Vieira of the experimental ensemble The Incense Merchants add to the discussion with an improvisational performance on violin and cello. Travelling through the universe is more fun with the right guides and the right music. This is the second installment of the new LSU SciArt Conversation Series. (March 31, 2011)

X-Rays!

A new play by Deborah Stein, called BONE PORTRAITS, explores the birth of X-rays and their useful and dangerous effects as experienced by Thomas Edison and his colleagues, along with other pioneers. This SciArt Conversation features staged excerpts from BONE PORTRAITS along with commentary and response from Dr. Steven Bujenovic, Director of Nuclear Medicine and PET Imaging at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital and affiliate faculty member of the LSU Department of Physics. (May 5, 2011)

Creatures Great and Small

This SciArt Conversation finds LSU Biologist Chris Austin discussing his discovery of the world's smallest frog (and how to prove it is a new species), while Raina Wirta of the LSU School of Art exhibits and explains her sculptures that have been inspired by nature, and Christine Mitchell of the LSU VetMed Library shows off some of the best critters from 25 years of LSU's International Exhibition on Animals in Art. (March 6, 2012)

Quantum Leap

Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg held a clandestine meeting at the height of WWII that historians believe may have prevented Hitler from getting the atomic bomb. Michael Frayn’s acclaimed play COPENHAGEN explores what is and is not known about that meeting. In this Sci-Art Conversation, staged scenes from “Copenhagen” are interspersed with Physicist Ravi Rau explaining the science and the scientific politics behind the play and the two famous scientists whom WWII had split apart. (September 13, 2011)

Spill

Leigh Fondakowski has created an intense and kaleidoscopic presentation of the events leading up to, during, and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, based on hundreds of interviews with scientists, rig workers, oil industry experts, government officials, clean up crew, and victim’s families. Reeva Wortel has created a gallery of original portraits of the interviewees who are portrayed on stage. In this Sci-Art Conversation, discussion panels consisting of both scientists and artists (Bill Platt, Fern Galvez, Carolyn Ware, Ben Dubansky, Kevin Kleinow, and Trish Suchy) were assembled to publicly respond to and discuss LSU Theatre’s staged reading of SPILL. (November 18 and19, 2012)

Relativity

In Cassandra Medley’s play RELATIVITY, a young geneticist finds herself at odds with her mother's not-quite-scientific political organization called "The Reid Institute for Black Empowerment". Mother and daughter grapple with the science and politics of race while trying not to destroy their own relationship in this intelligent and ambitious play. Ms. Medley joins the cast to participate in a post show audience feedback session. This Sci-Art Conversation is co-sponsored by the City University of New York Graduate Center and LIGO @ LSU. (March 24, 2013)