Â鶹´«Ã½

From Carmel McNaught, Chinese University of Hong Kong

One of the reasons I am an avid subscriber to Â鶹´«Ã½ is not only the text that I read, but also the images I see. Indeed, “reading” an issue of Â鶹´«Ã½ is a visual feast. I often wonder why the authors of articles are prominently noted but not the graphic artists.

One case in point was the fascinating recent issue on DNA (15 March 2003). The twisted human chains, and the dark grey-brown machine images were highly evocative. Our internal “satanic mills”. Who created those wonderful images?

Visualisation techniques have extended our capacity to model phenomena. Images enable us to work with and extend text and numbers. Where does the technology of images stop and art begin, or is the apparent interface between art and science merely an artefact of our own scientific reductionism?

Science demands evidence and rigour, but the answers to the important questions that scientists ask may require several different forms of answer. Images suggest ideas and the design of experiments, the results of which may best be interpreted using not only scientific visualisation but also freer artistic interpretations which suggest new ideas… and so the cycle continues.

Maybe I am suggesting that the boundaries to science cannot be as clearly defined as several of us have been trained to believe.

New Territories, Hong Kong, China