THE CHEMISTRY BETWEEN ART AND SCIENCE

Countering a perceived notion that art and science are wholly separate pursuits, White points out some of the many connections between the two.

Operating on a debatable assumption that this is a case that needs to be made, the author argues that art and science “have a lot in common!” and “make a great team.” Along with characterizing Galileo, George Washington Carver, and 17th-century botanical painter Maria Sibylla Merian as scientist illustrators and adding a few examples of generic modern collaborators, she depicts a dark-skinned child with paintbrushes and sketchbook working on nature studies and a tan-skinned youngster wielding, in counterpart, a telescope and other science gear. The message is delivered with a heavy earnestness unlikely to stir strong reactions in readers, and White does her thesis no favors with simplistic claims that art and science aren’t taught in class together and that few, if any, books incorporate both topics. With similar lack of background work, she closes with a hands-on project: a version of an “origami” fan (representing the way that part of the James Webb Space Telescope was folded for launch) that has to be glued together. Diverse human figures in the pictures include a musician (using, in unexplained ways, “science and math to understand sound”) who relies on a wheelchair.

Ineffectively makes a point that’s moot anyway.