Honors biochemistry and molecular biology student AJ Damiana recently finished a year-long fellowship through the new PRAx Center. Her experience culminated in a piece of art depicting the hallmarks of cellular aging. She was also honored to accept the assistant editorship at Beaver’s Digest at the same time, where she wrote about her experience.
"Neither of these things has anything to do with my biochemistry degree. I’m not learning about extracellular matrices or putting in time at the lab bench, but painting and writing have made me a better scientist," she said. "They have made me engage actively with the research I was already involved in, and curious to learn more about other research."
Science is a creative discipline; coming up with hypotheses and efficient experiments can oftentimes demand large steps out of the box. More so than anything, writing and painting force her to drag her mental wheels out of the ruts science has carved and seek out new paths to the same knowledge. They have exercised her creativity in unprecedented ways.
It would make sense that creativity rewards interdisciplinary approaches. "There are too many examples where melding together a knowledge brings revolutionary change," she said. "Melding of the natural world and artistic principles pulled western art out of the drab middle ages."
But, when it comes to science, it seems as though this principle has been forgotten or — rather — shunned.
"Our society has come to value the hard sciences above all other academic disciplines, creating thousands of intellectually brilliant and supremely rational scientists, engineers, doctors and programmers," she said. "University money filters through locker rooms and laboratories before it touches the literature classroom or studio."
However, interdisciplinary pursuits are one of the most valuable things someone can have — especially scientists.
Read AJ Damiana's full article about her experience on Beaver's Digest.
