Profesor Wolfe
Fractals in Nature
Maybe it'd be interesting for you and your students.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uas_HJNAzfw
Regards
Alfredo
Jonathan Wolfe wrote:
Hi everyone - I've finally joined this list, and have been
lurking for about a week to learn the culture a bit before
introducing myself. And it's finally time to do so, because I'll be
in Santa Fe tonight giving a talk for the Science Café series put on
by the Santa Fe Alliance for Science. It's from 6-8 PM, tonight
(Monday) at the Georgia O'keeffe Museum Education Annex, at 123 Grant
St. The title of my talk is "Zooming into Infinity: A Fractal
Adventure." It's a free show, so if you want to see it get there
early to make sure you get a seat. More info at:
http://www.sfafs.org/sciencecafes.asp
But I'm not really here to plug the show, I just wanted to
introduce myself, and I thought this was a good opportunity in case
some of you wanted to come to the show tonight to get a bit more
detailed glimpse of who I am and what I'm up to (see, a fractal
intro, available at different scales :)
So, I'm the Executive Director of this small but exciting
educational nonprofit, the Fractal Foundation, but most people just
call me the Fractal Man. And I do talk a lot about fractals, to lots
of people, everywhere I go. In fact, over the past 4 years, I've
taught fractals to over 21,000 people, (roughly 12,000 children and
9,000 adults) all over New Mexico. Given that there's ~326,000
students in NM schools, we're now 3.6% of the way to Leaving No Child
Unfractalled! And this is so much fun... whenever I go into a
classroom and teach the kids about fractals, they get so excited!
People love fractals, and we use the beauty and excitement of
fractals to inspire interest in science, math and art. I'm always
impressed by how well young people grasp these concepts, but it makes
sense because humans are so visual, and because the world around us
is full of fractal patterns, which means our visual systems have
evolved to perceive these patterns. Oh yes - my scientific
background, to continue introducing myself, is in neuroscience,
specializing in the visual system. I don't do much direct
neuroscience research anymore, because I find I make much more of an
impact teaching. I also use the knowledge I have about how we
perceive the world to inform my art and help me design incredibly
beautiful visual stimuli that are effective at a large range of
scales and different lighting conditions. The art medium I'm best
known for is hot-air ballooning, and you can see pictures of my
fractal-inspired tiedyed balloons at http://www.SkyDyes.net .
Ballooning itself is an amazing performance artform, where we throw
ourselves into a chaotic system, the sky, and the more we understand
about the complex dynamics of the atmosphere, the more power and
control we have to navigate where we wish to fly. It's a very subtle,
very beautiful activity, completely unlike the brute-force flying you
do with an airplane.
There's lots more to share, and I'd be happy to come up and do a
talk sometime for Friam, about the applications of fractals in
science, engineering and education.
I also want to invite you all to the most fun public shows I do,
"First Friday Fractals" at the Natural History Museum Planetarium
down here in Albuquerque, coming up again this Friday, Feb 1st, at
6,7 and 8PM. This show has been a runaway success, having sold out
all 51 consecutive First Friday showings for over a year now. It's
really thrilling to have such an unprecedented turnout for a math and
science show, but that's a testament to the incredible beauty of
fractals. And the fulldome immersive video environment in the dome is
a most dramatic way to enjoy the experience of zooming deeeep into
algebraic fractals. I choreograph the zooms to original music, which
has the soldout audience cheering, and makes me feel like the rarest
of creatures - a mathematical rockstar. Fun! But if you want to
come, make sure to buy tickets online at least a day in advance, or
you might not get in. (See the website below for ticket info.)
So I hope to meet you all sometime, and I look forward to getting
better connected with the Santa Fe community. Oh - one more thing...
I'll be up in Santa Fe again on Feb 5th, which is Math & Science Day
at the State Legislature. Come by if you can, say hi, see our display
of student-made fractals, and show your support for math and science
education.
Thanks!
-Jonathan Wolfe, Ph.D.
Executive Director
http://www.FractalFoundation.org
Next First Friday Fractals show: February 1st
Fractals are SMART: Science, Math & Art!
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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--
--------------------------------
Alfredo Covaleda Vélez
Ingeniero Agrónomo
Programador
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Compre y venda sus libros en:
http://www.loslibrosusados.com
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
