I recently read an essay on biology and art that presents the best case I've ever seen of integrating the two. Most examples of biology and art influencing each other describe what amounts to little more than a one-way street, with artists being inspired by living organisms, by biological research, or by the results of such research. It’s more difficult to find examples of scientists being assisted by artists beyond producing illustrations. The case I want to describe involves an artist who is also a biologist, and who has found his art to be essential to his research. He is Jonathan Kingdon, an authority on African mammals in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford in England. Raised in Africa, he remembers picnicking at Olduvai Gorge and spending vacations on the Serengeti plains. He trained as an artist at Oxford and then began teaching at the University of...
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March 2012
Research Article|
March 01 2012
Biology & Art: An Intricate Relationship
Maura C. Flannery, Department Editor
Maura C. Flannery, Department Editor
1MAURA C. FLANNERY is Professor of Biology and Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at St. John’s University, Jamaica, NY 11439; e-mail: [email protected]. She earned a B.S. in biology from Marymount Manhattan College; an M.S., also in biology, from Boston College; and a Ph.D. in science education from New York University. Her major interests are in communicating science to the nonscientist and in the relationship between biology and art.
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The American Biology Teacher (2012) 74 (3): 194–197.
Citation
Maura C. Flannery, Department Editor; Biology & Art: An Intricate Relationship. The American Biology Teacher 1 March 2012; 74 (3): 194–197. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2012.74.3.13
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