While scrolling through Facebook the other day (in likely one of my I’m-procrastinating-doing-my-schoolwork moments), I passed this picture that one of my friends shared. The title said, “A Microbiologist Recreated ‘Starry Night’ With Bacteria In A Petri Dish.” The first thought that occurred to me while reading this was, Oh yeah! Interdisciplinarity!
(Here’s the link if you’re interested — Starry Night in a Lab)
Too often, those whose are concentrated on the Sciences and those on the Humanities are defiant when it comes to allowing the two fields to dance with one another. You’ll often hear a science major claim, “I couldn’t draw to save my life.” And you can often hear me say, “I couldn’t conceptualize chemistry to save my life.” Though recognizing your weaknesses can be important, this constant beating down on one’s self doesn’t allow for room to grow.
Moran proves this point well in the introduction when he writes, “He [José Ortega y Gasset] argued that, while in the past it was easy to distinguish between the learned and the ignorant, there was now a new category of the ‘learned ignoramus…a person who is ignorant…with all the petulance of one who is learned in his own special line’ (quoted in Moran). This new kind of scientist, fully in place by 1890, confined himself to one subject and dismissed any attempt to look beyond his specialized field as dilettantism” (Moran 11). Here Moran illustrates that it is easier to get caged by your own department or discipline instead of branching out and exploring other skills you may possess.
So congratulations to the creator of this masterpiece, you have utilized your talents in both the lab and in the art studio.