When Alia Payne, an Interactive Arts major at the Maryland Institute College of Art who went to the National Museum of Natural History to study jellyfishes, brought the jellyfishes outside into the museum to teach the visitors about jellyfish biology, she was always asked by the visitors how the stings of these spineless creatures work. While she knew the scientific answer to the question, she found it difficult to convey it to her audience.
She had the scientific answer for them but found it difficult to explain the microscopic stinging cells that fire like harpoons out of jelly tentacles without a clear visual.
That’s when a lightbulb went off in Payne’s mind. She could show visitors how jellyfish sting using art. Payne immediately got to work in the sculpture shop at her school, excited to bring the microscopic stinging cells into full view.
This is one of the many reasons that goes to show that science goes hand in hand with art.
Art is a powerful tool for telling a scientific story.
Learn more about this over at Smithsonian Magazine.
(Image Credit: Karen Osborn, Smithsonian)
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