Earlier this month I was in Leiden for two back-to-back meetings: The European Conference of Science Writers (ECSJ) and EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF). Leiden’s old town centre is very walkable, and while walking around you’re likely to bump into one or more murals of scientific formulas.
These wall formulas were commissioned by two physicists, Sense Jan van der Molen and Ivo van Vulpen, who wanted to highlight how Leiden is connected to many important physics discoveries. They collaborated with artists from the TEGEN-BEELD foundation, which previously painted murals of poems across the city.
There are currently eight physics murals scattered around Leiden, and I spotted two of them while walking between conference venues. On the wall of the Boerhave Museum of science history is the Einstein field equation (pictured above). Einstein had a special professorship position in Leiden so he would frequently visit and collaborate with scientists there. One part of his field equation was the direct result of conversations he had with Leiden professor Willem de Sitter.
Another mural I stumbled upon was this pair of electron spin formulas by Samuel Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck, who both studied at Leiden University.
To learn more about the Leiden Wall Formulas, visit the project’s website:
🎨 More science art from ESOF
A few other science art projects I learned about while attending ESOF2022:
Ceramic artist Jacob van der Beugel created a “DNA Room” at Huis Ten Bosch, one of the residences of the Dutch royal family. The walls include code from the DNA of the Dutch King and Queen.
The De-Extinction Deli is a pop-up booth by the Center for Genomic Gastronomy that goes to festivals and other events, where visitors can learn about de-extinction and try meals that reimagine what it would be like to eat extinct species such as the passenger pigeon.
When Microbes Dream is an exhibit by Canadian artist Jennifer Willet that’s currently touring Europe. “With this exhibition, the artist reimagines laboratory aesthetics as bountiful, feminine, and gaudy in direct contradiction to scientific norms.”
🎵 Music by MusiSci
On the day that NASA revealed the stunning images taken by the JWST, Graham Gouldman and Brian May released “Floating in Heaven”.
🎙️ New Cryo-Talk episode
There’s a new episode out of Cryo-Talk, the podcast I host for BiteSize Bio and Thermo Fisher. I always ask the scientist guests about their favourite films and books, so it’s very tangentially related to the topic of this newsletter. :)
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