The Art of Scientific Observation: an art-science project on the legacy of Barbara McClintock

Abstract We explore a facet of the scientific method of the Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock through an artistic process. McClintock’s key scientific insights that she coined the ‘breakage-fusion-bridge cycle’, rest on her observation of maize kernel colors and forms together with the spatial arrangement of chromosomes. These intriguing studies motivated the art project ‘break-fusion-bridge-cycle’ to highlight the role of visual observation in discovery. Four different posters bear irregular diamond shapes with forms reminiscent of X-chromosome shapes and color patterns of the kernels McClintock studied and are inscribed with the words break, fusion, bridge, and cycle using a font type inspired by her drawings of chromosomes. As freely available posters, anyone can experiment with the spatial arrangement of shapes and colors, to reflect on one’s own ability to observe, to make connections and create new insights.