When Art Meets Science: A Biophysical Perspective at the Städel Museum

Join us as we explore the intersection of art and biophysics with emeritus director Prof. Werner Kühlbrandt at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt

Text: Pamela Ornelas

The Städel Museum is a cultural landmark in the city of Frankfurt, renowned for housing one of Germany’s most significant art collections. Since 2018, the Städel Museum has partnered with the Max Planck Society to present the “Guest Commentary” (Gastkommentar in German) series, where experts from diverse scientific fields share their unique perspectives on the works of the Museum.

 

In the latest instalment, Prof. Kühlbrandt from the Structural Biology Department at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics takes us through a captivating journey of the museum as he connects masterpieces to the enigmatic world of protein structures inside the cell. His tour features pieces such as The Geographer by Johannes Vermeer and Russian Girl with Compact by Lotte Laserstein. In the latter, he delves into the concept of apparent mirror symmetry in nature, which is lost at a molecular level, such as in proteins. This phenomenon is known as handedness or chirality. During the museum route, Prof. Kühlbrandt further emphasized this effect by pointing out spiral structures along the route, including the mirrored spiral staircase leading to the museum’s terrace, evoking the helical arrangement of amino acid chains.

For the finale, Prof. Kühlbrandt stops at the Sandmühle by Günter Uecker, a rotating apparatus that carves concentric circles on a sand bed. He explains how this piece serves as an analogy for energy conversion, in this case, turning electrical energy into friction and heat. Similarly, energy undergoes transformations to power the cells, a central theme throughout his research career.

Don’t miss this engaging “Gastkommentar” available on the Städel Museum’s YouTube channel.

Kunst un Zellstrukturen mit Biophysiker Werner Kühlbrandt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPbr5KhEl1Y

Click here to stay updated on upcoming “Guest Commentaries” by the Max Planck Society or to attend a live event at the Städel Museum.

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