Rendering the Molecular World: Where Science and Art Meet
Ludwik Fleck Lecture 2026 by Soraya de Chadarevian

Lecture by

Soraya de Chadarevian
University of California, Los Angeles, US

Details

Venue:
University of Zurich, building RAA
Room RAA-G-15
Rämistrasse 59
8001 Zürich

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This event is open to the public and free of charge.
No registration needed. Seating capacity is limited to 100.

In the Ludwik Fleck Lecture 2026, Soraya de Chadarevian explores how we imagine molecules and their functions in the cell. Even though these structures and processes are invisible to the human eye, both scientists and lay audiences have a vivid image of how they look and function.

The images we have in mind very much depend on the renderings found in scientific publications, in textbooks and the media. These representations are not merely illustrations. They are intimately tied to the technologies scientists use to capture the molecular world in two and three dimensions. In turn, they become part of how these phenomena are imagined and understood. With Fleck we can say that they establish a “style of seeing” the molecular world.

In her talk, Soraya de Chadarevian sheds light on this process by focusing on the work of scientists who pioneered the structural study of biological molecules in the early days of molecular biology. Working in close collaboration with artists, they created the images that, in many ways, continue to influence how we imagine the molecular world today.