I started
with a 3D monomer, however, it had a very weak base of just one legos piece.
Because of this the polymer that was created was skinny and unstable. Each
additional monomer that was placed added to the complexity of the polymer. It
gave the polymer a different look/character. Yet the polymer had a limit as to
how complex it could be due to physical constraints. The amount of large legos
pieces needed became scarce thus making it impossible to make anymore alike
monomers. In turn making it unfeasible to add to the polymer.
I started building monomers just with 5
pieces of legos and connected the five parts of the legos and made it into
polymers (1st and 2nd picture). The last picture is the result of combination
of complex polymers addition with monomers connected to each other. Comparing
to the first step I took from 5 pieces of legos, the amount of legos at the
last part is uncountable and has more 3D shape.
This
exercise reflects to the reading Nano modeling with Lego Bricks, showing
the different steps of how simple “monomer” could transfer to series of
monomers to polymer to complex polymer. This lab makes the students to ask
different questions on stability and strength of legos based on their
structures.
In terms of
constraints, the types of pieces we had really limited our building options. In
the end, we were all scrambling for the last 2x2 pieces. When those ran out, we
were forced to use different pieces to continue building our monomer. This
could be viewed as a mutation of some kind, because we have to adapt and change
to nature’s limitations.
My original goal was to use this
monomer to build a strand, but soon I realised that my structure was just too
fragile for me to do anything. Therefore I changed my monomer into a much more
reinforced structure by increasing the conjunctions between each block.
And as I
developed my structure, I realized that becoming complex doesn’t mean just
increase the length. As the article point out, “The subunits are attached at
some angle, perhaps various angles, probably not in a straight line. As new
units are attached they begin to interact with each other.
It became a
helix structure as I expected, but as more subunits that were added with
different angles, it started to look different
Even though
our lego constructions (polymers) turned out to be complex structures, they
didn’t have to be “complex” in the way we understood them. Because we were
developing them from the ground up, we could see the individual, simple
monomers that made up our polymers. I feel I developed a better understanding
of polymers in general because I knew I wasn’t looking at one complex
structure, but an amalgamation of different parts.
I started with a Z shape monomer. This
allowed me to build in a pattern
while also building up. Eventually, my
wall reached 5 levels high, by just duplicating this piece. It was amazing how
complex the creation got as it was built more and more. I could see the
monomers combining to make a complex sculpture. I also saw many patterns
emerging, not only in the building itself, but even in the shadows that
streamed through the gaps in the wall. This experiment helps us understand how
life comes from the smallest building blocks by using, well, building blocks to
simulate how organic structures are made. it ‘s amazing to think how much
effort it took to build a relatively simple structure here, and how much more
complex the organic constructions within our body must be.
A monomer starts it all. Choosing a symmetrical monomer leads to a
structure that is repetitive and neat. When you make an asymmetrical monomer,
the polymer is not the most perfect repeating structure. My structure was a
touch asymmetrical therefore when I combined the monomers I attached them in a
way that turned the overall structure into a symmetrical one.
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