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A six-print exhibition of "teaching art" by Baker Professor of Chemistry Larry French has been installed on the third floor of the Johnson Hall of Science. Titled "Carbon Allotropic Images - a Universe of Pure Carbon," the prints are "stylized depictions of various known and theorized elemental carbon structures," according to French.

French states, "The series presents views of a range of known and theorized bonding arrays for pure carbon superstructures ranging from diamond and graphite to more exotic nested fullerenes, nanowires, nanotubes, graphene and cubic graphite. The works were produced using a ray-tracing technique which calculates paths of waves and particles through a system. When applied in the context of computer graphics, it can generate high-resolution, realistic and three-dimensional pictures. The images are accompanied by short teaching narratives proffering physical and chemical descriptions of the structures which are the focal points of the works, along with relevant historical and other background information."

Jane W. Lammers, of Red Squirrel Photography in Canton, served as a consultant in printing, matting, framing and displaying French's works, produced during his spring 2008 sabbatical.

Posted: September 11, 2008