While not as shockingly unusual as the knitted teratoma I reported on a while back, this knitted brain (located at the awesomely-titled 'Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art') is equally amazing. Regions are knitted with varying colors, and the corpus callosum is a zipper!
Here's a view of the brain from above, and "opened-up" (the hemispeheres seperated with yarn spinal cord trailing.)
Artist: Karen Norberg, Location: Boston Museum of Science
"Building a brain with yarn and knitting needles turns out to follow many of the same pathways as actual brain development," says Norberg.
Here's a side view:
Brain & Behavior
Comments
http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2007/12/knit-me-brain.html
Posted by: Cuttlefish | December 1, 2007 11:56 AM
And the threads and wires are the axons and dendrites. Nice analogy ;-)
Posted by: Kris Verburgh | December 1, 2007 12:46 PM
This is impressive.
(Although, sad to say, I've met a few people who seem to be equipped with them...)
Posted by: Azkyroth | December 1, 2007 11:49 PM
I could while away a minute
And every second in it
In pleasure, not in pain...
Whether wool, flax, or cotton,
I would know it wasn't rotten
If I only had a brain.
I'd be happy--even chipper--
To know I've got a zipper
Where some are cleft in twain.
I'd be glad--that's what I'm saying--
If through knitting or crocheting
I could only have a brain
Oh, I... could tell you why...
A fella's brain feels full
I could tell you it is cotton or it's wool
Oh, but the truth? You know it's bull!
I could stay here, just a-sittin'
Pretending I was knittin'
But what would I attain?
As a cuttlefish, I'd rather
Just disguise myself in blather
And pretend I have a brain...
Posted by: Cuttlefish | December 2, 2007 12:53 AM
I was thinking about my life and how I always seem to have more to do than I have time to actually get done. It just boggles the mind to think there are people out there with enough free time to knit a brain..KNIT A BRAIN!!!
Then I realized if i wasn't killing time posting meaningless comments to SciBlogs I might have time to get more done. OK, bye, I am going to go be useful now.
Posted by: Kevin | December 2, 2007 1:09 PM
Impressive knitting... and poetry :) I tried to post a blog pic but perhaps the link will have to do... this was a student's try for extra credit, she made a cookie brain... it was too nice to eat. Plus is was not chocolate chip.
http://image24.webshots.com/665/2/7/81/2065207810102149482gdkOgp_ph.jpg
Posted by: CJ | December 2, 2007 6:43 PM
I'm as impressed with Cuttlefish as with the knitted brain.
Posted by: Tatarize | December 3, 2007 12:22 AM
Your teratoma deserves its own story...
http://digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com/2007/12/teratoma-or-knit-me-sister.html
Posted by: Cuttlefish | December 4, 2007 3:20 PM
Wonderful cuttlefish! I did have a soft spot for the teratoma. Even tumors can have personality. :)
Posted by: Shelley Batts | December 4, 2007 10:09 PM