Angela the Curious Goat

This evening I went to an interesting art exhibition at the Sydney Cooper Gallery in Canterbury which celebrates the 30th anniversary of the polymerase chain reaction (aka PCR) as a methodological technique in biological science. PCR is technically demanding but is in theory a very simple "chemical cookery" procedure in which small amounts of DNA are amplified into quantities large enough to analyse or to use in other ways, for example for disease diagnosis or forensic criminology. PCR has revolutionised biological sciences in the same game-changing way that antibiotics revolutionised medicine and the aeroplane revolutionised transport.

The exhibition included works from a small number of artists who have been working on projects related to, or in response to, the science of PCR. I found it intriguing. I must mention a really deeply thoughtful piece by Sarah Craske called Echo of Narscissus in which she extracted DNA from daffodils which she amplified with PCR. Her interest focussed particularly on the copying errors that can occur in DNA replication which are, in effect, the mutations which are the substrate for evolution. It is fascinating to hear a thoughtful artist talk about the substrate for evolution; artists and scientists are not like oil and water, we are not two cultures - creative scientists and analytical artists are brothers and sisters, Ying and Yang. Much can be achieved by science and art rubbing up against each other - friction creates sparks!

This photo is of a work by Stig Evans in which he has created church kneelers labelled with the 4 bases which are critical to DNA. He believes that religion and science both show some ritualistic behaviours which are a nice counterpoint to the arguments between these two opposed ways of seeing the world. For me I cannot see how a scientist can swallow religious interpretations of the world, but I do know that many scientists approach their work with zealotry.

Time for bed now!