Event 3: Louise Darling Biomedical Library

As I explored the Louise Darling Biomedical Library, I was fortunate enough to come across some unique and special artifacts that are not that old when it comes to collectability.  I came across some artifacts that were a part of space and a part of human exploration of space.  The experience of human exploration of space is unfathomable.  Just by being near the possessions that were included in a space launch made myself be filled with wonder knowing I was touching something that was not within the world as we know it to be. 

Anna Lee Fisher is a UCLA graduate of Chemistry and was assigned to the 1978 NASA Group that boarded Discovery launch.  She brought with her a small handheld book written by Hippocrates himself and it was about the codes that a doctor or physician should go by when tending to patients.  She was the emergency physician on board the spacecraft, and that made her the artist’s rendition of the mix between space, medicine, and art, which are 2 different topics we talked about.  The book is a unique art piece that is classical in its medical practices, but it changes into a work of space art because it was introduced into an atmosphere that is unlike the Earths.

I also got to see a piece of a spaceship’s belly material that is made of silicone to prevent the spacecraft from burning up once it makes its descent back into the Earth’s atmosphere.  The silicone material acts as a absorbent of heat for the friction that is caused when the spaceship is trying to touch back down.  The tiles are angled in a way to fit precisely into each other and are labeled to insure a safe structure.  This is a testament to math and angles, which is included in the topic of math and art.

The collection was special for it is how space has been disturbed by human interaction.  The interaction causes fascination and it is even overwhelming to think that the objects were in space at once.  As a added greatest to Anna Lee Fisher’s legacy, she brought a UCLA banner with her up into space. Go Bruins!

Works Cited/Links

"Library Special Collections for Medicine and the Sciences (Biomedical Library)." UCLA Library. Web. 4 June 2015. <http://www.library.ucla.edu/destination/library-special-collections-medicine-sciences-biomedical-library>.

"Anna Lee Fisher." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 4 June 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Lee_Fisher>.

"Space Shuttle Questions." Physlink. Web. 4 June 2015. <http://www4.hcmut.edu.vn/~huynhqlinh/olympicvl/tailieu/physlink_askexpert/ae524.cfm.htm>.

Dunbar, Brian. "STS-51A." NASA. NASA, 18 Feb. 2010. Web. 4 June 2015. <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/archives/sts-51A.html>.

"Astronaut Bio: Anna Fisher (7/2014)." Astronaut Bio: Anna Fisher (7/2014). NASA. Web. 4 June 2015. <http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/fisher-a.html>.