Communicating Science through Art

High school student Hyewon Jung’s experience studying Alzheimer’s disease research at BU inspired this image of a young child surrounded by neurons and synapses in the brain. Hyewon Jung

ART & SCIENCE

Communicating Science through Art

High school students in BU’s Research in Science & Engineering program learn how to work in labs—and communicate their findings through works of art

January 26, 2022
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For the roughly 130 rising high school seniors lucky and talented enough to be selected, Boston University’s Research in Science & Engineering (RISE) program is a chance to take their science skills to the next level, working in campus labs with faculty on actual research projects. But the students, who travel from across the country for the six-week intensive program, also get thrown a surprising competitive twist: use their experience or findings to inspire a piece of art.

As they wrapped up their stints, the most recent cohort of students produced art that included a finely painted picture of zebrafish, a photo illustration of schizophrenia, and a digital representation of brain activity. One piece of art is selected as the winner at the end of the program.

“[Creating art] allows them to think about their research as it applies to a larger audience,” says Amanda Kautzman, the associate director of BU Summer Term who helps run the program. “We also challenge our students to practice making elevator pitches to everyone, from someone who knows nothing about science to researchers. Maybe you can get someone to be interested in what you’re doing through a different lens.”

Kautzman says the art task also helps push students to test their preconceptions about science—and consider where it might take them in life.

“It’s a very, very prestigious program—these are the smartest kids in the country; it’s really academically challenging,” says Kautzman, who has a PhD in neuroscience. “A lot of these students sometimes think their only options are to go to med school or grad school, then become a scientist or a doctor, but there are lots of different ways to use these skills and interests to explore future career paths.”

The winner of the 2021 art competition was Hyewon Jung of Pleasanton, Calif., who focused on Alzheimer’s disease research during her time at BU. Her image of a young child surrounded by a swirl of neurons and synapses in the brain was shown at the program’s final poster symposium and featured on the cover of a booklet of student research abstracts.

“I was inspired the most by the memory—formation and recalling—aspect of our project,” says Jung. “Each synapse between the neurons forms a part of one’s childhood memory—some neurons and synapses are degenerated, while others remain vivid.”

Here are the other finalists, including a short description from the students of their project or artwork:

Illustration of a kind of fractal tree with a series of flies or bees string a pink ball of yarn through its branches. The background is bright orange.
Mina Jung, Simi Valley, Calif.: “My literature review investigated the role of UCH-L1 [a gene] in pathology of Parkinson’s disease by studying dUCH [an enzyme] in Drosophila melanogaster, commonly known as the fruit fly. This piece shows the cocrystal structure of UCH-L1 embedded in a vein- and tree-like shape to symbolize the integration of human biology and other organisms in the field of neuroscience.”
Closeup painting of a school of small fish. They have darker blueish strips and the light parts of their bodies are orangey yellow. The water is deep blue behind them.
Olivia Platt, Port Washington, N.Y.: “This is an acrylic painting of several zebrafish swimming in a tank. My research project examined the role that the ubiquitin fusion degradation 1 gene plays in tumorigenesis in a zebrafish model.”
Colorful illustration that resembles swirled paint, with a light blue, dark gray, burnt umber and green swirls emerging from separate corners. At the center, in a yellow blob, is some sort of graph with several peaks.
Lawrence Long, Campbell, Calif.: This image represents a series of neurons, including one that plays “a role in addiction by increasing dopamine output in response to taking opioids.”
Illustration of a series of synaptic connections between neurons. Each image sort of has a central sphere shape with what looks like wires extending outwards.
Melody J., San Jose, Calif.: “These images are generated by the program VQGAN+CLIP, which uses deep learning to generate images from text prompts. Shown is ‘synaptic connections between neurons.’”
Photo of a series of pipes lined up with one another. The pipes are light green and rest on a dark blue background.
Victor Cai, Allentown, Pa.: “The image depicts Amazon Sidewalk FSK packets that are often used in Internet of Things communications. I stacked them like bricks—green alien ones, reminiscent of Space Invaders and other antique video games.”
Black and white photo of a young person with short hair with their head in the hand. Behind them is black illustrated background with a speech bubble and scribbles.
Ekansh Tambe, Dallas, Tex.: “I used photography and digital design to create an abstract representation of the common experiences and symptoms of people with schizophrenia. Specific symptoms portrayed include disorganized speech, visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, delusions, avolition, and anhedonia.”
Illustration of a head looking off to the left, at right a large blank white space. The head has blue and red lines where the hair would be and "AD" is written in red below the head's chin.
Harrison Huang, Irvine, Calif.: “This is inspired by our group project on learning how amyloid beta buildup impacts an Alzheimer’s patient’s memory. The brain is crying, symbolizing the degradation of brain function. On the other hand, the tone of the figure is black, white, and gray, which specifies the depression that goes along with the disease.”

BU researchers and faculty interested in hosting future RISE students should contact Amanda Kautzman at kautzman@bu.edu.

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