Timothy Bromage, professor of biomaterials and head of the Hard Tissue Research Unit in the NYU College of Dentistry, creates abstract art when capturing hard tissue samples. One of his pieces—an image of the mineral and collagen fibers in the femur of "Lucy," the skeleton of an early hominid from nearly three million years ago—is the basis for the wall covering of the Hall of Human Origins in the American Museum of Natural History.

"Seldom—if ever—has a commercial device exercised such dominance on the principal forms of public speech," explains Erica Robles-Anderson, associate professor of media, culture, and communication at Steinhardt, who notes that with more than one billion installations, the program is unduly influencing our narratives.

"It's only when they finally touched down that it sunk in that it really was successful." For the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Gunter Georgi, industry professor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, describes his experience working on the thermal analysis for the lunar module and outlines the technological advances the mission inspired.