the beauty of science

"I realized that I had the microscopic equivalent of a cubist painting, art and science never seemed closer."

These are scans from a book I picked up at the car boot entitled SUPER VISION: A NEW VIEW OF NATURE by Ivan Amato. I spied its neon cover poking out of a box, quickly flicked through and figured it would make amazing collage material. Reading it later on however, I discovered it's the epitome of my current love of the fusion of both art and science. The imagery in the book ranges from the subatomic scans of crystals (#1), metals, minerals and materials, the visualization of molecular reactions, microscopic images of plants and cells to close up views of adhesive tape (#4) and bamboo (#3); beautifully psychedelic, otherworldly and kaleidoscopic.

"When the image is so abstract that it refers to no particular scale of size, it enters the domain of modern science almost directly, for science itself images abstractions as forms of analysis. Thus many pictures of some scientific value resemble the work of abstract artists during many epochs of art." 

Nature's glorious penchant for order: "everyday ornament, say a fine pot or fabric, may be repeated in multiple, male a style of a single impetus. Science too deals in multiples: Stars and blossoms, the unending system of integers, the barrage of particle and photon, the sound trains of air vibration."

I never thought that the words DIGITAL, PRINT, and SCIENCE would ever be in my vocabulary collectively (I'm a vinyl > downloads, monochrome > colour, art > science classes gal) Couple these words with ART however and I get extremely excited. Just IMAGINE any of these as prints on material / fabric / dresses / jumpers ~ INSANE.

"Nature exhibits both symmetry and chaos, and from time to time either or both of these characteristics can lead to images on every dimensional scale whose value transcends the scientific interpretation of physical phenomena and extends into the realms of art and aesthetics." YES

out:there

Images from Super/Collider, a "not for profit collective which promotes science through the creative industries. Working with illustrators, photographers, filmmakers, artists, designers and other creative folk we explore the myriad worlds of science - from geology and chemistry to astronomy and physics."

Love the collaboration between science & art!

The excitement of Curiosity landing on Mars on the 6th brought out the inner astronomer in me, even to the extent that I bought a proper space dedicated zine that day (yes I was that kid who at 13 asked a rather perplexed physics teacher whether the universe was infinite) Amazing moment in the development of our understanding of our solar system & what with the discovery of the Higgs earlier this year too, the universe. Pretty cool.

Sunrise on Mars + the first full resolution image from the Curiosity rover. The rim of Gale Crater (96 miles in diameter) can be seen in the distance beyond the pebbly ground. INCREDIBLE IMAGES non?

Here are some amazing facts from my zine because I know deep down everyone loves a crazy fact or two about the universe ~

o It would take 85 years to drive to Mars (at 65 mph), to Pluto, 6,200 years and, get this, 278 billion years to the centre of the Milky Way.
o The nearest galaxy to the Milky Way is the Large Magellanic Cloud (160,000 light years), but the nearest spiral galaxy, and most similar, is Andromeda, at a distance of 2.5 million light years from Earth.
o The Andromeda galaxy and the Milky Way are moving towards each other at 62 miles per second and they are on a course to merge together in 4 billion years time.
o The observable universe is 13.75 billion light years away
o Mars has the largest crater ('Hellas Planitia'), mountain / volcano ('Olympus Mons') & canyons in the solar system. Olympus Mons is a whopping 14 miles in height (22,500 metres) which is roughly three times Mount Everest. Mars is a cool planet.

Okay I'll stop now.