Beauty in Science

Scientific research furnishes us with insights and knowledge, but can it also offer beauty?

For several years Hans Galjaard has asked renowned research institutes, individual scientist and photographers in the Netherlands and abroad to select images. This material demonstrates that science not only provides us with new knowledge and insights, but also produces great beauty. This beauty can be found in (sub)microscopic images of molecules, cells and organisms, natural phenomena and breathtaking images of the cosmos.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is showing a selection of more than seven hundred images and film clips, displayed and projected according to ten themes: physics, chemistry, geology, bacteria, single-celled organisms in water, fungi, plants, cell biology, human reproduction and astronomy.

Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), photograph: Wim van Egmond/Micropolitan Museum,
Rotterdam. — Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), photograph: Wim van Egmond/Micropolitan Museum, Rotterdam.

In this exhibition there are no art works but scientific films and images are projected on the walls and ceilings. They include beautiful images of (sub)atomic particles, the effect of sound on matter, crystals of small and large molecules and multicoloured mineral dust. But there is also an impressive diversity of single-cell organisms, plants and fungi. Modern technology allows us to witness the birth of a stem cell, cell division and chromosome replication and cell death in higher organisms. The exhibition also contains poignant images of the human foetus and overwhelming images of the universe.

Page from the Antoni Gaymans Herbarium (c.1672), photograph: Ben Kieft, National
Herbarium of the Netherlands. — Page from the Antoni Gaymans Herbarium (c.1672), photograph: Ben Kieft, National Herbarium of the Netherlands.

In his essay Hans Galjaard writes about how he was moved by a film of 4D ultrasound images of the development of the human foetus made by the gynaecologist Stuart Campbell. This was the beginning of his plan to collect aesthetically pleasing scientific images. In his quest for images he has asked many researchers if they have also experienced such a moment of overwhelming beauty – a so-called 'Stendhal moment' – but this was not the case. By far the majority of researchers were entirely focussed on acquiring new knowledge and insights.

Bacterial culture: Nocardia asteroides, magnification 2x, photograph: L.H. van Damme,
Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Department, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam. — Bacterial culture: Nocardia asteroides, magnification 2x, photograph: L.H. van Damme, Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Department, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam.

Until 5 June 2011
Beauty in Science
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Museumpark 18, Rotterdam

Germination of fungal spores, photograph: Jan Dijksterhuis, CBS Fungal Biodiversity
Centre (KNAW), Utrecht. — Germination of fungal spores, photograph: Jan Dijksterhuis, CBS Fungal Biodiversity Centre (KNAW), Utrecht.

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