Munich-based photographer Volker Steger gave 50 Nobel laureates a large sheet of white paper and assorted crayons and told them "Draw your discovery." Then he photographed them holding their art work. None knew what he was up to.
The result: a traveling exhibition titled "Sketches of Science: Photo Sessions with Nobel Laureates," which the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Davis displayed at a Jan. 6-28 exhibition.
It was "the first and only planned showing of the exhibition in the United States," according to UC Davis officials.
We especially liked the work of molecular biologist Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, who drew a realistic Drosophila fly, aka fruit fly. You may remember that Nüsslein-Volhard shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995 with fellow scientists Eric Wieschaus and Edward B. Lewis, for their research on the genetic control of embryonic development.
Today she lives in Bebenhausen, Germany.
"This is one of the very few female Nobel Laureates," photographer Steger wrote. "She doesn't appear to think very highly of my project. She told me 'It would have taken up more of my time to get rid of you than to just do the drawing and the pictures!' (That is the most dubious compliment I have ever got). During the shoot, things get easier. She turns out to be a great woman, with colourful shoes. Her drawing is perfect. It did not surprise me to learn that she illustrates her books herself."
She also has a sense of humor. She recalls she was "determined to study biology, deeply convinced to eventually be a researcher. I had briefly considered studying medicine, because of its relevance to mankind. To find out whether I could be attracted to studying medicine, I did a one month course as a nurse in a hospital. This experience greatly supported my conviction not to become a doctor."
She became a molecular biologist. "I immediately loved working with flies," she wrote in her Nobel Prize biographical sketch. "They fascinated me, and followed me around in my dreams. Basel and the Biozentrum was a very good place to spend one's postdoctoral times. I met Eric Wieschaus who just had finished his thesis in Walter Gehring's lab. His thesis project on the origin of imaginal disc cells in the blastoderm interested me very much. I learned a great deal about the use of genetics to study development in discussions with Eric."
Read more about her fascinating life that led to her Nobel Prize.
Nüsslein-Volhard is an inspiration to all scientists and would-be scientists. (And she draws an incredible fruit fly!)
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