http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/06/06/truth__beauty/
Originally appeared in the Boston Globe
Where does science end and art begin? A Harvard physicist
and an MIT photographer offer different -- and surprising -- answers.
By Harvey Blume
THERE'S NO ESCAPING the provocative power of the scientific
imagery that bombards us regularly. The fingerprint, the skeleton as revealed
by X-rays, the double helix, and fractal geometry are among the iconic images
that demolish old ideas and crystallize new visions of the world.
And yet, though they continue to generate visual evidence of
ongoing revolutions in science, scientists themselves are divided about how
these images should be interpreted -- and, in particular, about whether they
can or should be seen as art. What's more, just to complicate things, many of
the procedures scientists now take for granted have analogues in the arts,
which raises thorny questions about just who, in the end, is influencing whom?
