Frederik Ruysch
Frederik Ruysch was a Dutch botanist and anatomist, remembered for his developments in anatomical preservation and the creation of dioramas or scenes incorporating human parts.
Athanasius Kircher
A renown polymath, Kircher’s research encompassed a variety of disciplines including geography, astronomy, mathematics, language, medicine, and music, bringing to each a rigorous scientific curiosity girded in a mystical conception of natural laws and forces. His methods ranged from the traditionally scholastic to the boldly experimental. He once had himself lowered into the crater of Vesuvius to observe its features soon after an eruption. Another example of his scientific originality is seen in the two chapters of his book Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae devoted to bioluminescence, where his scientific observations included an experiment to test whether firefly extract could be used to light houses. He also constructed the first known Aeolian harp, a stringed instrument that became popular in the late 18th and 19th centuries.
Donald Evans
Donald Evans was known for creating hand-painted postage stamps (artistamps) of fictional countries.
Byssus
A byssus is a bundle of filaments secreted by many species of bivalve mollusk that function to attach the mollusk to a solid surface. Species from several families of clams have a byssus, including the pen shells, the true mussels and the false mussels: the Pinnidae, the Mytilidae and the Dreissenidae. Byssus cloth is a rare fabric, also known as sea silk, that is made using the byssus of pen shells as the fiber source.
Tyrian purple
Tyrian purple is a reddish-purple natural dye. It is a secretion produced by several species of predatory sea snails in the family Muricidae, rock snails originally known by the name Murex. In ancient times, extracting this dye involved tens of thousands of snails and substantial labor, and as a result, the dye was highly valued. The main chemical is 6,6′-dibromoindigo.
Red mercury
Red mercury is a mythical substance of uncertain composition purportedly used in the creation of nuclear bombs, as well as a variety of unrelated weapons systems.
Garry Winogrand
Garry Winogrand is a photographer.
Hans Bolling
Hans Bolling is a Danish designer who became famous for his mid-century modern themed Danish wooden toy figurines.
The Human Drift
The Human Drift is a work of Utopian social planning, written by King Camp Gillette and first published in 1894. The book details Gillette's theory that replacing competitive corporations with a single giant publicly owned trust ("the United Company") would cure virtually all social ills.
Temppeliaukio Kirkko
Hewn into solid rock in the middle of a residential square, Helsinki’s Rock Church (Temppeliaukio Kirkko) features a circular ceiling covered entirely with copper stripping. Natural light streams in through 180 window panes, while an ice age crevice in the natural rock serves as the altar.