Event 1: UCLA Meteorite Collection

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For my first event, I made a visit to UCLA's Meteorite Collection located in the Geology Building. UCLA's collection is the largest on the West Coast, the fifth largest in the U.S., and the second largest at a university. On my walk to the gallery from north campus, I was reminded of the "two cultures" topic we covered for our first week of class. After walking around the gallery and learning about various types of meteorite, I came to understand how important it is to experience both "cultures" as much as possible. If I had remained closed off to the "other culture" of math and science, I would have missed out on an amazing learning experience right on campus.

The Meteorite Gallery also helped me to understand the concept of science as art. All of the meteorites in the collection were displayed like works of art. Each meteorite had a description detailing the name, the place where the piece was found, the composition, etc. Also, many of the pieces were placed in glass cases like how works of art are displayed in museums and art galleries. The science "culture", however, was not absent from the collection. There were many informational displays about different types of meteorites like iron meteorites, extraterrestrial basalts, and chondrites. Also, there were more general informational displays like on what a meteorite is, the origin of a meteorite, and the formation of iron meteorites.

I believe that my visit to the Meteorite Gallery will help me a lot when writing my midterm and final project. Because of my visit, I have a concrete example of the intersection between art and science. I will definitely refer back to my experience at the collection when thinking of ideas for the two upcoming assignments. 

I highly recommend my fellow classmates and all UCLA students in general to visit the Meteorite Gallery at least once before they graduate. It is a fascinating hidden gem on campus that I don't think many know about. But one that I think everyone should know about. 


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