Tuesday, March 20, 2012

This is both crazy and completely brilliant: The Microbial Academy Of Sciences

Oh My God.  This is so wild and crazy I can't just write OMG - I have to write the whole thing out: The Microbial Academy Of Sciences: What Bacteria Can Discover That We Can't | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

The article describes an art exhibition in San Francisco in which one part involves giving microbial cultures access to images from space.  The reason for this is possibly captured in this quote
"Because cyanobacteria can perform photosynthesis," Keats says, "they’ll be able to detect patterns of starlight just as human scientists do with their eyes. The difference will not be in their methodology, but rather in the conclusions they reach."
and even better
But in all those eons, bacteria have never been given observatory access, to study the cosmos for themselves. … My observatory is built to address that unfortunate oversight, providing the resources for colonies of bacteria to research a theory of everything, reconciling cosmic and quantum observations in their own bacterial way."
I know some hard core scientists may object to this and some of the other lines by the artist but I personally think this is brilliant (in a devious way but brilliant nevertheless).   Everyone out there should read this article by Morgan Clendaniel.  And I for one and going to try to go to the exhibit ASAP.  I personally cannot believe I have not heard of this yet since it seems to have opened in January ...

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