Salem State biologist and geographer team up for exhibit that tests sense of scale

The very big and very small can be hard to tell apart.

That's the premise behind "Macro or Micro? Challenging our Perceptions of Scale," an exhibit of photographs at Boston's Museum of Science by Paul Kelly of Salem and Stephen Young of Swampscott. 

"There are 48 pieces, and they are a mix of satellite images and images made from an electron microscope," Young said.

Kelly teaches biology at Salem State University, and Young teaches geography there. They've taught classes together on the relationship between their disciplines.

"One is called biogeography, the study of the spatial distribution of life on Earth," Young said.

The discipline addresses such matters as why kangaroos can be found in Australia but not Iowa. 

The photos that the two have taken for research reflect their differing approaches to studying the world.

"Geographers study the world from the individual to the entire global system," Young said. "Biologists tend to look at an ecosystem — a species, down to organs in the individual, down to the microscopic."

Each photograph in the exhibit raises the question of whether it was taken from a great height or at extremely close range.

For example, what looks like islands in a river delta could also be skin cells, and what appears to be a range of snow-covered hills may really be colonies of bacteria.

"The difference in scale between his largest and my smallest is a million times," Young said. "Paul's looking at something in millimeters in size, I'm looking in kilometers."

The Boston show is the fourth that Young and Kelly have held together, after Young organized a number of previous shows featuring his satellite photos from space, starting with one at Salem State in 1998.

Young got the idea for his one-man shows after noticing that students got something more from looking at his photos than they did from reading tables of data, which were derived from information in the pictures.  

"I started hanging them up in my office," he said. "There's some sort of visual intrigue in the imagery itself."

He eventually also hung one up on Kelly's office door, in a mischievous gesture that became the basis for the exhibits they have held together.

"One day, I put a satellite image on his door, and it looked like one of his microscopic images," Young said. "He thought it was one of his colleagues. I thought, 'There's something here we can work with.'"

Introductory panels at the Museum of Science exhibit give a general overview of the show's themes, while text accompanies each photo, explaining what it contains.

"There is a collage on the back wall with 12 images and a listing to the side of what each slide is," Young said. 

In addition to presenting viewers with a fascinating puzzle, Young and Kelly hope the exhibit will provide some valuable lessons.

"People complain that scientists only talk to themselves and don't engage the public as much as they should," Young said. "This is a way we can begin to show the public about how we see the world, how we image the world."

It also gives viewers some insight into the instruments they use, to capture things that can't be seen with the naked eye.

"It's a very brief description of how the electron microscope works," Young said. "To see something smaller than visible light, we send electrons at it."

There is also information about the different methods, such as infrared photography, used in taking satellite images.

Young also hopes viewers will take away important lessons from the guesses they make, about the kinds of photos they are looking at.

"We assume this is that, and it's not," Young said. "You hear people go 'wow' when they're completely wrong. We start to question our perception of things, which I think is great."

That awareness of our assumptions applies in our daily lives, beyond the world of science, as Young has discovered.

"I went to Iran earlier this year to set up the show," he said. "Everyone told me I needed to grow a beard to fit in, but it turns out more people have mustaches than beards — we misinterpret the unfamiliar." 

If you go

What: "Macro or Micro? Challenging our Perceptions of Scale"

When: Through Sept. 30. Summer hours (through Sept. 7) are Saturdays through Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Where: Art & Science Gallery, Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston

How much: Admission to exhibit halls is $23 for adults, $21 for seniors and $20 for children ages 3 to 11.

More information: www.mos.org or 617-723-2500

Source: Salem State biologist and geographer team up for exhibit that tests sense of scale