Dear Listener,
I recently stumbled into a book club with my coworker Ellis. Although we are still waiting to discuss it, we both read Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy. Every time I read Cormac McCarthy I go into a non-fiction marathon. After reading any book by Cormac McCarthy, I can’t really stomach fiction for a while. It is after reading McCarthy when I read culture books and science books and history books. I began by ordering a book about time travel and a book about fascism. As I waited I pushed through John Jeremiah Sullivan’s Pulphead. (You can see Anna’s blog on Pulphead here.) It was then I stumbled upon the recent book by science writer Carl Zimmer called Science Ink. The synopsis on the back cover is such:
In 2007, writer Carl Zimmer began noticing that more and more scientists were sporting science tattoos. Fascinated, he reached out via his blog, “The Loom,” and began to receive a steady stream of tattoo images, along with compelling personal stories about the designs. In Science Ink, Zimmer has collected more than 300 of these thought-provoking tattoos. Expanding on the stories of each one, he deftly explores the science behind the ink and reveals the passions and obsessions of science lovers around the world.
I think my interests in the book have changed. I first opened it up to flip through it, curious of the tattoos. In that sitting, I just scanned the tattoos, which are all incredibly interesting. It was my second trip through the book that really grabbed my interest. I realized that most of these people are brilliant. With tattoos. Not vagrants or criminals, but scientists. What is more interesting is how Zimmer “expands on the stories.” While reading through it, he is actually covering hundreds of subjects that relate to science and mathematics. Here is an example from one of my favorites:
Ben Ewen-Campen, a graduate student in evolutionary biology at Harvard, sports a “DNA ladder.” The ladder is produced by electrophoresis, a technique used to analyze DNA molecules. The tattoo is made with black-light-sensetive ink, glowing in the ultraviolet just like real DNA in some electrophoresis kits. “The fact that it looks like a barcode from a futuristic dystopic society is an accident,” he writes.
Most of the tattoos are creatively beautiful. Even without color, they are so interesting, they are still beautiful. A tattoo of fulvic acid is another one of my favorites:
I got this tattoo as an homage to the pain of my graduate work,” writes Corey Ptak. “It’s a model of fulvic acid, which is a representation of natural organic matter in the soil. I work with this molecule for my grad work, and I figured I might as well get it etched into my skin so I can look at it and say, ‘Well, ate least it hurt less that grad school at Cornell.'”
A tattoo of a dodo belongs to Cecilia Hennsessy who is working on her Ph.D. in wildlife population genetics. The H2O molecule belongs to Jerry O’Rourke measures and predicts stream flow. Dirac’s equation belongs to Melinda Soares who studied physics at the University of California, Ssanta Cruz. Anastasia Gonchar is getting her Ph.D. in chemical physics at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Germany, and she has a tattoo of pi orbitals. It seems like every entry is like this. Some of the science is very advanced, but much like tattoos, Zimmer holds no pretension.
Whether you consider every person with a tattoo a vagrant or a criminal, maybe they’re just a scientist. Or a doctor.
by Simon
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