In hmolscience, Shawn LaPaix (c.1995-) is a Canadian communications designer noted for his 2005 poster “The Human Body in History” (below middle), made for the University of British Columbia Art Gallery exhibit, wherein he creatively uses English biologist Thomas Huxley’s famous 1863 evolution of man drawing or rather more correctly the circa 1950 display: "The Evolution of the Ape to Human" (below left) at the Peabody Museum, Yale University, together with the 1952 CPK atom color scheme: red = oxygen, blue = nitrogen, gray = hydrogen, black = carbon (not shown), to allude to the idea that the human (or rather human molecule) is a body of evolving changing atoms, formed into the structure of a molecule, that has been chemically synthesized into its current form, over long spans of evolutionary time. [1] In 2010, American electrochemical engineer Libb Thims modified the ape to man section of LaPaix's version by added on the CPK coloring scheme key, the vertical words "chemical mechanism", to signify that evolution, from hydrogen to human is brought about through a chemical reaction mechanism, and the germane 2010 quote "we are but complicated molecules" by Internet writing ex-minister turned secular philosopher Brother Greg, to give a more illustrative and detailed "big picture" view of human evolution (such as illustrated on the evolution timeline). [2]
| Huxley version (1950) | LaPaix version (2005) | Thims version (2010) |
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The atoms falling off seem to be depicting the turn-over factor.
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| A comparison version of the CPK human molecule, made by American illustration artist Chris Gash in 2009. [3] |
In 2009, similar to LaPaix's CPK human molecule depiction, American illustration artist Chris Gash humorously illustrated New York Times article “Experiments Show that Molecules Can Walk, but Can They Dance?” with the a stick figure (below) of a little running human molecule, poking fun at the idea of a walking molecule. [3]
See also
● Chris Gash
● Jonathan Borofsky
● Norval Morrisseau
● Jonathan Borofsky
References
1. (a) shawnlapaix.com/#ubc (sample works) – ShawnLaPaix.com (dead site?).
(b) UBC – Wayback Machine.
2. (a) CPK coloring – Wikipedia.
(b) Greg. (2010). “Complicated Molecules”, Brother Greg’s Buffet, Jul 21, WordPress.com.
3. (a) Gash, Chris (illustrator) and Fountain, Henry (writer). (2009). “Experiments Show that Molecules Can Walk, but Can They Dance?”, New York Times, Science, Apr 07.
(b) Chris Gash (about) – ChrisGash.com.
External links
● Shawn LaPaix – Facebook.
