Art has links in science, and science has links in art. One of the pioneers of that idea was Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance archetypal scientist-artist who did everything from experiment to invent. Great knowledge such as the ideas he had can sometimes be lost in time and forgotten about. However, with their “Art of Science” exhibition, Princeton University dove head first into resurfacing Leonardo’s great knowledge. Looking at the images in the 2013 exhibit gallery, they are all very aesthetically pleasing, and most have some element of a pattern in them. The fact that a lot of the images had patterns surprised me, because they are almost all photos of nature and not modified processes. We seem have this idea that nature isn’t perfect, and that these natural phenomena don’t show repetition. However, that’s a false assumption. As we can see here in Michael Kosk’s Crushed Birch (below), the dense cellular structure of a birch tree indeed does have a similar texture in two directions that it seems to mimic with every layer of tree.

“Crushed Birch”, by Michael Kosk (student)

Another example of this natural repetition is in Jasmine Imran, Stephan Thiberge, and Stanislav Svartsman’s creation Slice by slice. Their image (below) is of cross-sectional slices of histones in an egg chamber of Drosophila melanogaster, a fruit fly. The images were taken using a laser-scanning microscope, and they do an absolutely astonishing job at highlighting the natural patterns of nature’s creatures.

“Slice by Slice”, by Jasmin Imran Alsous (graduate student), Stephan Thiberge (imaging manager), and Stanislav Shvartsman (faculty)

Another theme that I saw in the exhibit’s images was color. The two above were able to show their patterns in a stronger way by using the contrast of black and white, but most of the other images were alive with color. One image that demonstrates the vibrant colors of nature is Jess Brooks, Esteban Engel, and Lynn Enquist’s Brainbow rainbow. In it, Vero cells (kidney monkey cells) have been infected by a herpes virus with a”brainbow cassette”, which highlights expressed proteins with florescent colors. These different colors are useful in identifying specific neurons, allowing us to trace neural circuits. It also clearly serves as a beautiful art piece, somewhat resembling a colorful tile floor, or an abstract stained glass window.

“Brainbow rainbow”, by Jess Brooks ’13, Esteban Engel (postdoc), and Lynn Enquist (faculty)

In a TEDx Talk, contemporary artist and biochemistry researcher Yoko Shimizu goes over the similarities between art and science. She explains it as “they are both extremely creative fields that explore new ideas and break boundaries.” I couldn’t agree more with Yoko, who goes on to explain and demonstrate their similarities and things or principles that they have in common. Her TEDx Talk can be found here.

From this article I was able to improve and build on my personal belief that there is art in science and that there is science and art, although I still have much to learn. The two have been interconnected since their origins, and I think they still are. I hope that people will start understanding the links between the two, because when that happens, I believe the potential is endless.

Princeton University’s 2013 “Art of Science” exhibit gallery can be found here.