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Emergent Universe - an online museum of science.

Wed, April 28, 2010 - 12:11pm

Ranging from slime molds to Alzheimer’s Disease, a new online exhibit, Emergent Universe (http://www.emergentuniverse.org) aims to encourage young people to learn about “emergence,” complex behaviors that arise from the interaction of simple parts.

“The emergent perspective allows you to approach problems in a different way,” said David Pines, distinguished professor of physics at UC Davis and co-director of the Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter, which sponsored the website. “There are no unique solutions—you have to try many different things, look for organizing principles and get a feel for what is connected to what.”

Emergent Universe uses animations, art, games, music and even a manga comic book to draw viewers into exploring emergent phenomena. The exhibit is aimed at 15 to 30-year-olds, college-bound or college-educated, but not necessarily with a scientific background.

“Different activities are designed to appeal to a broad range of learning styles and interests,” said designer Suzi Tucker. “We chose to go for exploration, to let people get sucked in.”

“We want to convey the idea that we do not just study emergent behavior in matter—these are general principles that apply in the world at large, in climate change, in economics, in fixing our schools,” Pines said.

“The idea is to introduce young people to the principles of emergence and encourage them to think about it,” he said.

A major part of the exhibit explores “the Fibril Connection:” a misfolded amyloid protein can give rise to devastating conditions like Alzheimer’s Disease, yet the same proteins perform useful functions in other living systems. Visitors can zoom in on a human brain and discover the mysteries of amyloid through lab note books, animations and games.

In the “Unlocking the Universe” section, visitors can: Listen to music composed to express the concepts of emergence in quantum mechanics     View a manga comic that illustrates an emergent perspective Zoom in on a pointillist image that illustrates length scales Play the “Game of Life,” creating patterns from simple interactions “Grow Art,” from repeated application of very simple rules.

The developers plan to add a new section on superconductivity in the next few months.

The site was designed and developed by Tucker, a former chemistry professor at UC Davis, with web artist Stephen Hartzog and scientific input from Pines, Daniel Cox, professor of physics at UC Davis and other members of the Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter. The site was funded by the Institute, a multidisciplinary research program of the University of California with 31 branches across the U.S. and 61 globally, headquartered at UC Davis.

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