Saturday
Jun122010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Butterflies of the soul
Jun 12, 2010 Books I chanced upon this page of images from a book of scientific illustrations - images like the one below. I thought they were rather lovely.
I love the intricacy of it. Look at the detail...
It's hard for someone as artistically challenged as myself to comprehend the skill that produces such an amazing piece of work.
The book has the delightful title of Cajal's Butterflies of the Soul and is published by OUP.
Reader Comments (7)
I believe Josh does similar medical illustrations as a day job. You might ask him to contribute to your art collection if I got that right.
Having studied neuroanatomy, I have long been fascinated by the intricate beauty you show. It does make one thing about just Who designed it? "Random chance" does seem remote.
True, I do, tho sadly less now than I used to. I studied zoology and scientific illustration and found the two subjects fitted well together. Both are about observing the real world and trying to describe it as it is.
Which is why climate science is so intriguing!
>>"Random chance" does seem remote.<<
Indeed. Natural selection on the other hand... ;)
"We don't understand why the climate behaves as it does, so it must be caused by man."
"We don't understand how the brain developed, so it must be...." well, you fill in the rest and behold the irony.
Fighting AGW hysteria certainly makes for strange bedfellows.
pax
I do not anthropomorphize God. It is quite arrogant to think we were made in His image, if He had one, which I doubt. Go buy the book Bishop recommends and look at the beauty.
"Natural selection" is simply a label put on that which we do not understand. Try answering your own question with it. You get:
"We don't understand how the brain developed, so it must be natural selection."
Behold the irony.
And as for "Global Warming" I do not see any compelling evidence that it is happening. What I see when I look at the satellite data is the dirty hand of James Hansen. I agree with VS in his argument that the data is questionable if there is a Unit Root in it, which there is. It has been tampered with.
Thus your argument "We don't understand why the climate behaves as it does, so it must be caused by man." is obviously correct, but not in the way you implied.
Hi Pablo,
Reading my own comment again, I see that it was perhaps a little harshly worded. I apologize for that.
Understanding a basic mechanism like natural selection (which is VERY well understood) is not the same as understanding exactly how that mechanism played out in a chaotic environment millions of year ago, so I don't buy your paraphrasing. While evolution doesn't explain exactly how the brain developed, it does provide a solid explanatory framework.
It is entirely possible to understand a physical process or mechanism down to the tiniest details while still being unable to predict exactly how that process behaves over time or explain how the system arrived at a particular state. Explaining the process and establishing bounds is in fact all we can hope for - something which seems to need a little more work in climate science.
they actually don't look like that; they are more beautiful. I sometimes stain cells with mitoctracker, allowing you to see the membrane potential of mitochondria. In neurons you can see the heterogeneity of the population, some stationary, winking on and off like little lighthouses, some wriggle like little worms, the ones around the nucleus are quiescent.
The neuronal projections are also dynamic, you can see they probing around like little fingers on a keyboard.
http://www.anatomy.unimelb.edu.au/researchlabs/rees/images/duncan.jpg
Purkinje Cell for you.