Tuesday, July 31, 2007

String for beadings

Previously, I have always used fishing string for beading. There is no particular reason since everyone who beads uses it. Chuang made a giant beaded T120 with plastic crystal beads last month with fishing line. Chuang used that T120 as a 宇宙能量枕 everynight to gather the cosmo energy probably. Apparently, the string was not strong enough, so it broke apart eventually.
I mentioned this to Prof. Chien of NTNU, he said we should use racquet string typically for badminton or tennis to tight up our giant beaded molecules. These racquet strings have much better mechanical properties. If we want to make giant beaded fullerenes for public display, it seems to me this is the best way to get strong, durable, light-weighted objects. Thanks for Prof. Chien for his wonderful suggestion again.

Funny "No ..." Signs outside the Catherine Palace Museum




Monday, July 30, 2007

Krelim's giant cannon


How far can a cannonball of this size go?

St. Basil's cathedral

The beautiful St. Basil's cathedral in red square, Moscow.
(taken by Bih-Yaw Jin during the 2007 International Chemistry Olympiad, Moscow)

Public arts (公共藝術) for new chemistry building

According to the regulation of the Taiwan's goverment, in oder to promote the appreciation of art by our people, any new building must have the public art (公共藝術) put on exhibition in the public space around or in the building .

I have suggested to Chuang and a number of faculty members (Profs. J.-T. Chen and S.-F Cheng) of my department last month (June, 2007) about the possibility of using our invention of molecular beading as a public art for our new chemistry building. Except Chuang, other people thought that I was kidding. But in fact I was very serious. I have two proposals originally. Firstly, I plan to create three large beaded fullerenes including an icosahedral molecule such as C60, a tetrahedron molecule, and a toroidal molecule (T120) using steel beads with radii about 10cm. The resulting structures can be 2 to 3 meters high. Then putting these giant beaded molecules outside our new chemistry building. Hopefully, close to the front door.

The other proposal is to create several small beaded molecules such as the Sierpinski's ball made by Chuang and his classmates of 2007. Put each of them on a wooden stand and enclose it in a glass box. Then, we can leave these artworks in many different places in the chemistry building such as corners of Jiu-Ru lobby and corridors of each floor.

Last week, when I was in the Moscow (or St. Petersburg) airport with Prof. Chien (簡敦誠教授 ) of NTNU, I told him about my idea of using beaded molecules as public arts for our new chemistry building. He immediately suggested another solution. Instead of making a huge beaded molecular artwork outside the building, he said it is better to hang these beaded molecules from the ceiling if the ceiling of the lobby in the new chemistry building is high enough. Indeed, in between these two buildings, there is a large open space with high ceiling we can take advantage of. In fact, as far as I know that will be the main lobby right after one enters the chemistry building. Imaging that when you step into the main lobby of chemistry building, the scene unfolded in front of your eyes is many giant, colorful beaded fullerenes with variety of shapes hanging from the high ceiling. What a wonderful view. I like this idea.

I think I should work out the detailed plans for all these ideas later this year.

By the way, I found this site of our government:
「公共藝術獎」徵選
and
公共藝術

High-Genus carbon surface

Beaded model for the high-genus carbon surface as suggested by Terrones a few years ago.

Beautiful D Surfaces

While I was out of town in Russia in last two weeks, Chuang made several beautiful beaded structures of high-genus carbon materials. Here is one of the structures: the periodic minimal surface of D-Types (Schwartzite D-surface).

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Back from Russia

I was just back from Russia, ten days in Moscow and three days in St. Petersburg, yesterday. I took a few pictures of Mendeleev's sculpture and his Periodic table on a wall.