Artifact

Art imitates science

3-d printed bowl

Credit: Greg Ryan

Arrange a sheet of carbon rings one way and you get a diamond. Rearrange those same rings ever so slightly and you get something completely different: graphite, perhaps. Leave it to a Johns Hopkins alum to apply materials science to art. Rose Thun, Engr '90, started using 3-D printers to produce engine parts while working in aerospace, but she quickly found that the machines could be used as a creative outlet, to design complex, conceptual artwork often centered around science. Her 5 Allotrope Bowl (accompanying image) incorporates five types of carbon microstructures.

Posted in Science+Technology