The image he created would later win the People’s Choice Award at the WonderLab Museum of Science, Health and Technology.
He looked at the image before him, applied his staining techniques and waited for the result.
At the time, he didn’t know how it would turn out. He didn’t stain with deliberate attempts to create beauty, but what he saw had to be shared.
“I thought, ‘OK, scientifically, this isn’t too useful, but it’s beautiful,’” Alex Straiker said, and he set out to capture the images.
Straiker’s primary focus is in brain research, specifically with the effect of cannabinoids, brain receptors and their relations with marijuana.
His art is created from a system of labeling and marking. Instead of highlighting a page, Straiker marked each given area with a color.
“One way to visualize is to use microscopy and florescent microscopy,” he said. “We use a technique called amino-ester chemistry which allows us to label where things are specifically. You can see where a given cell is located. If you have other defined markers, we can say, ‘OK, this marks the cell membrane,’ so that you get this understanding for what you want, and you get a relationship between the two.”
Within the past 10 years, Straiker said he has witnessed considerable changes in the ways art and science continue to come together.
“There’s been a big change in the types of available tools for imaging,” Straiker said. “It’s gotten better with the color. Suddenly, we’re finding that we have these beautiful images on our hands. It’s often, though, not a direct correlation that the most beautiful ones are the ones with the least scientific value. It shouldn’t necessarily be that way.”
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In addition to his research at IU, Straiker is the main organizer of Science Café, where he aims to merge scientists and the general public to engage in research related topics.
“The idea there is to explicitly build bridges between the scientific community and non-scientists,” Straiker said. “There is this huge gap, and if anything, it’s getting more and more pronounced. At the WonderLab exhibit, there was a real effort to do that.”
Straiker said the exhibit, which was formed around the idea of the “Nano World” of things microscopic and small, is definitely something to see.
The WonderLab places a great influence on the connection between science and art.
“Both disciplines use some of the same skills of observation, gathering data and interpreting information to help understand the world,” Associate Executive Director Karen Jepson-Innes said.
WonderLab has always been invested in bridging the gap between science and art, Jepson-Innes said. She referenced past WonderLab activities such as children drawing “hissing” cockroaches and giant ?millipedes.
“There’s so many connections, and that’s the way WonderLab sees the world,” she said. “We don’t really see two separate disciplines, but people tend to think of art and science ?differently. We try to break down that barrier.”
To Jepson-Innes, the relation between art and science started before cameras and microscopes existed. It started with scientific illustration of the body and the organisms around us, she said.
“Scientific illustrations are very beautiful, and it’s hard to say if they’re a work of art or if it’s a scientific document,” Jepson-Innes said. “I think the microscope work has taken that idea to the most current level. Microscopes and technology allow us to view the world in an unprecedented way.”
However, Jepson-Innes said scientists creating art from microscopic work clearly have an aesthetic recognition, and it shows in their art.
“We had a committee made up of working artists and working scientists to judge the submissions,” she said.
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Hung along WonderLab’s wide staircase is the “Nano Art” exhibit, where, among the selections, is Alex Straiker’s Peolple’s Choice Awarded image “ Cultured Hippocampal Neurons on a Bed of Astrocytes .”
Those who visit linger on the staircase and stand as their eyes absorb the swirling green lines, fiery red orange filling up the portrait and the small turquoise nuggets nestled between each line.
That image isn’t just lines and circles. They’re neurons. It’s a glimpse into the human brain.
Straiker’s said his goal as a scientist and appreciator of art is to educate about beauty in a way that anyone can understand.
“A lot of people feel that it’s science, and say ‘I can’t understand it. This is not for me, it’s for someone else,’” he said. “I think getting past that is ?important.”
His image was selected as a winner by WonderLab’s visitors, but it was a jury favorite as well.
Jepson-Innes explained the three components that led to Straiker’s award, the first being ?composition.
She said the shapes and arrangement of the image were visually pleasing to the three decision makers: the museum representative, the scientist and the artist.
Secondly were the color choices. Straiker didn’t have control over where the cells would be, but he did control his color choice.
“Thirdly, it was interesting biologically, and the microscopy was very well done,” Jepson-Innes said. “The resolution, sharpness of the image and the care of the tissue preparation was of high ?quality.”
Altogether, Straiker submitted 15 pieces of his work, where 14 images were selected from 48 submissions, Jepson-Innes said.
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From the decoration of Straiker’s office, it’s clear to see where his passions lie: right in the middle of science and art. He called himself an intermediate and a ?middleman.
“A lot of artists have statements about what their art means, but I don’t,” Straiker said. “I don’t interpret it. I just think it’s beautiful.”
His office in the Multidisciplinary Science Building Phase II labels him as a scientist, but the artwork, covering every inch of wall space, says otherwise.
Straiker pointed out the one he’s most proud of: a wooden sphere with seven fish on it. Each fish becomes more human the lower they get on their sphere. Their eyes take shape and their legs form.
“I made them myself,” Straiker said. “It’s a bit of a Darwin theme. I think it’s a clever mix of science and art.
Straiker didn’t originally gravitate toward science or art.
“My first degree as an undergraduate was international affairs,” Straiker said. “I did that, finished it and thought, ‘What a horrible idea.’ I decided to go back to school and started over.”
Straiker then went to graduate school in San Diego, where he was introduced to the idea of merging the two worlds of science and art.
“There was a point when I thought, ‘Do I go towards art or do I go into science?’” Straiker said. “There was a guy in the program and within my year who was heavily into imaging. He came home with images that were beautiful and made me start thinking about microscopy as an art form. I ultimately decided that I could always do art on the side, but I could never do science on the side.”
Regardless of his choice, both avenues are heavily reflected in Straiker’s life, but he resists labeling himself as an artist.
“I am very sensitive to not calling myself an artist,” he said. “I am a scientist who happens to obtain aesthetically pleasing images and who has chosen to make them available to share.”
There aren’t any models for his artistic or scientific inspiration.
The creation of his award-winning work was an accident, a fluke, a stroke of good luck.
“There’s this bed of astrocytes that support sensory neurons, and that’s what you see in the image. That’s a mistake,” Straiker said. “It wasn’t supposed to stain red, but it’s really interesting because it shows you the support cells that you normally wouldn’t see.”
Straiker is foremost a scientist, but his artistic abilities can’t be ignored. He’s an anomaly in the world of science, but he also encourages others to join him in engaging with art as a passion and as a part of life.
“We happen to have the tools, and we’re observing,” he said. “The process of getting the art is just serendipity.”
