Mudflat: The Aesthetics of a Marine Biologist’s Engagement with Her Work

Abstract

This article offers two edited/shaped pieces of conversation between a retired marine biologist and her daughter. The first conversation takes place on a Florida mudflat, the second in a North Carolina kitchen. These conversations suggest the biologist’s “intimacy with the environment of the mudflat,” a lifetime of discovery and surprise in relation to that environment, and the role of aesthetic response in her motivation for scientific work. They affirm Eisner and Powell’s (2002) assertion in “Art in Science?” that the work of science has a deep relation with aesthetic response.