Conference Review
Have you ever seen a molecule? Art, Science and Visual Communication
25-26 March 2010
In the early spring science illustrators, designers and artists met with historians of science, communicators and world leading scientists at an intense and productive research workshop at CRASSH. The event was organised by Dr Rikke Schmidt Kjaergaard who is currently a Research Associate at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit in Cambridge. Working at a high-end molecular biology research unit and with a background in art history, mathematics and science communication Dr Schmidt Kjaergaard is well versed in drawing arts and science together in new and inspiring ways. This was also the aim at this conference.
In the two days the conference lasted the seminar room at CRASSH was turned into an exhibition area with watercolours, models and artwork representing the molecular world. The centrepiece of the exhibition was Colin Rennie’s glass sculpture of ATP synthase. Weighing more than 1,500 pounds the green three-dimensional elusive structure tantalised the audience by changing shape depending upon the angle, the light and the position of the spectators while artists and scientists engaged in prolific discussions of how to represent, communicate and colour nature at nanoscale. Why? To draw people in and fascinate them of how complex and beautiful the molecular level of the most common and ordinary physical aspects of everybody’s lives are. But more seriously the aim is to make people understand molecular science and ultimately to improve scientific research and communication at a basic level. The participants were united in this aim of making everything better.
Nobel Laureate Sir John Walker, who discovered the structure of ATP synthase inspiring Rennie’s sculpture, introduced the conference by unfolding the creative power of beauty in nature at a molecular level while comparing it to artistic interpretations. Shirley Wheeler, Felice Frankel and David Goodsell were drawing the audience in by their unique ways of communicating and representing molecular structures as designers, science illustrators and scientists while Poul Nissen and Richard Perham were captivating everyone in clear, succinct and aesthetically sensitive explanations of the research frontier of structural biology and biochemistry. Mathias Gmachl and Rachel Wingfield were giving everybody a hands-on experience in a practical workshop making artists and scientists work together. A series of young researchers were also given the opportunity to present their research of the intersection between science and art, from a historical, a science communication and an educational perspective.
Dr Rikke
Schmidt Kjaergaard
Research Associate
MRC
Mitochondrial Biology Unit in Cambridge
