Rosamond Purcell: From Fins to Bookworms
Squirrel Monkey
Rosamond Purcell
National Geographic Magazine, 2006
From Fins to Wings @ National Geographic Magazine
A very accessible and beautifully illustrated article on my favorite subject in biology: developmental evidence for deep evolutionary homologies. The companion photography is by artist/photographer Rosamond Purcell. In this photo, a squirrel monkey embryo is cleared (rendered transparent), then stained with Alizarin red S to reveal its bone structure. The skeleton appears discontinuous because the ends of the growing bones are still cartilaginous.
With the Modern
Rosamond Purcell
From Bookworm, 2006
Purcell, who collaborated with the late Stephen Jay Gould on several books juxtaposing art and biology, just released a new collection entitled Bookworm. In it, she blurs the boundaries between the documentation of specimens and the creation of art objects, with books themselves as the raw materials. To create the example above, she allowed a termite colony to partially digest scientific texts, then collaged them together, fusing the processes of decay and design.
Bookworm looks excellent; I can’t wait to get my hands on it. In the meantime, you can preview some of the images and sample Purcell’s earlier works in this slideshow-essay from Slate.
1 comment November 11th, 2006