I was pleasantly surprised!
At first glance it feels a bit like strolling through an Andy Warhol's expo. Some of the work is arranged in 10 seemingly identical pictures arranged in a 5x2 grid, except that it is not Marilyn Monroe up on the wall but some mineral composition of a meteorite, or the beady eyes and huge jaw belonging to burrowing scorpions in Africa
Being particularly fascinated by the scorpions I started asking questions to the guide and found out that these pictures were taken under an ultraviolet light that causes the scorpions exoskeleton to become fluorescent and reveal the amazing details.
I spent a very long time trying to play a lonely game of "spot the differences" between the 10 insects faces... they all look the same though, unlike with Warhol's work, they are just not!
Other pictures of critters, wooden sculptures, skeletons were instead analysed using a CT scanner that the museum acquired last year in view of the use they could put it to by showing the aesthetics of science.
... and I always only though of a CT scanner as a mere medical diagnosing machine!!!
While in many of the images it is obvious that the subject is something scientific, we can see that there are clearly all these other things that are incredibly abstract and beautiful without being scientific! In fact, many of the departments at the museum are represented in the exhibition with the scanner and electron microscpy being used to take a closer look at the inside of a fossilized skull of a monkey, teeth of an extinct rodent and appendages of goblin spiders.
Other pictures of critters, wooden sculptures, skeletons were instead analysed using a CT scanner that the museum acquired last year in view of the use they could put it to by showing the aesthetics of science.
... and I always only though of a CT scanner as a mere medical diagnosing machine!!!
While in many of the images it is obvious that the subject is something scientific, we can see that there are clearly all these other things that are incredibly abstract and beautiful without being scientific! In fact, many of the departments at the museum are represented in the exhibition with the scanner and electron microscpy being used to take a closer look at the inside of a fossilized skull of a monkey, teeth of an extinct rodent and appendages of goblin spiders.
All quite fascinating, and coming from someone who is horrified just at the idea of bugs and insects, I didn't really mind them staring at me.
If you are in the neighbourhood, "Picturing Science" can be seen through to June 24th, 2012
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