“Art is science made clear,” said the French artist Jean Cocteau.
The public needs that. Science is complicated, detailed and that thing the “smart kids” in high school do. It uses terms such as “biotechnology” and “nanotechnology” that people sort of know and other terms like “phagocytes” and “quarks” that most have little idea what they are.
Yet people only have to visit a hospital, choose an app on their iPhones or go grocery shopping to understand that the work scientists do returns to them in countless ways. And scientists need the public to support government grants — the foundation of their funding — to continue to make discoveries.
One of the ways scientists clarify the complex and inscrutable nature of their work is through art. Like gallery art, science art can be pleasing to the eye as well as awe-inspiring, thought-provoking and sometimes disturbing. But in all of its beauty to the eye of the beholder, it is an attempt by scientists to describe in simpler terms what they find about who we are and how our world works.
The art form scientists use most is photography, taking pictures of what they see using technology from electron-scanning microscopes to space-based telescopes to convey the magic that is our universe. Scientists also draw, build models and use whatever medium is in the artist’s toolbox to visualize the heretofore unseen and unknown, so that even nonscientists can say, “I see it.”
Biographical information on scientist/artists
Carol Abraczinskas Principal scientific illustrator, Department of Organismal Biology & Anatomy, University of Chicago
Tom DeCoursey Professor, Department of Molecular Biophysics and Physiology, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago
Bill Foster U.S. Representative, District 14; former member of the team for the Collider Detector at Fermilab project in Batavia
Martin Gruebele James R. Eiszner endowed chair in chemistry; professor of physics and faculty in the Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Maria Lemke Aquatic ecologist, The Nature Conservancy; director of Mackinaw River project; member of restoration team for Emiquon Preserve, Havana
Michael Lemke Associate professor, Department of Biology; director of the Emiquon Field Station, University of Illinois Springfield
Michael Jeffords Entomologist; public relations and education liaison, Illinois Natural History Survey, Institute of Natural Resources Sustainability, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
John Rogers, Lee J. Flory Founder Chair in Engineering Innovation; professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering; professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Kenneth Suslick Marvin T. Schmidt professor of chemistry; professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering; professor, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at UIUC
Adler The Adler Planetarium and the Chicago Department of Aviation partnered to host a photo exhibit, From Earth to the Universe, on display through December at O’Hare International Airport in the pedestrian walkway tunnel near the O’Hare CTA Blue Line station.
Illinois Issues, December 2009
The Seven Sisters, also known as the Pleiades star cluster, seem to float on a bed of feathers in this infrared image from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Clouds of dust sweep around the stars, wrapping them in a cushiony veil. The Pleiades, located in the Taurus constellation (the bull), are the subject of many legends and writings in cultures around the globe. Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/J. Stauffer (SSC/Caltech)
Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and the third largest in our solar system. The northern hemisphere (left of the rings) is emerging from decades of darkness. The bright white and blue spots in the southern hemisphere are clouds above the planet's atmosphere. Methane in the upper atmosphere absorbs red light, giving the planet its blue-green color. Uranus is spinning on its side, probably because of a collision with a large object early in the solar system's history. Credit California Association For Research In Astronomy / Science Photo Library