Student Turns DNA Into Art Using a Mile of String

More than 50 students at the University of Rochester just transformed microscopes and molecules into masterpieces, proving that scientific discovery doesn't have to hide in textbooks and labs.

The university's annual Ed and Barbara Hajim Art of Science Competition brought together physicists, engineers, political scientists, and medical students to show the stunning visual side of research. Three winners emerged from a pool of entries that ranged from hand-drawn ink illustrations to macro photography and string art.

For the second year running, the judges and the people agreed on the winner. Political science student Matthew Ahn took home both first place and the People's Choice Award for "The Architecture of Knowledge," a hand-drawn ink illustration featuring clocks, mechanical systems, and geometric networks that show how scientific discoveries build on each other layer by layer.

Physics PhD student Meg Farinsky captured second place with a glowing macro photograph of pink oyster mushroom gills. She grew the mushrooms at home and photographed them with professional equipment, highlighting fungi that scientists are now studying for everything from plastic degradation to electrical signaling that resembles brain activity.

The third-place winner required serious dedication and a lot of patience. Biomedical engineering major Majd Tabsi spent 30 hours threading a mile of string between 250 nails to create "Strings of Life," a visual representation of DNA and gene editing technology like CRISPR-Cas9.

Tabsi used specialized software to calculate exactly how to pass the string 2,500 times from nail to nail on a two-by-two-foot wooden board. The result shows a DNA strand with a separated gene, representing humanity's growing power to edit the code of life itself.

Why This Inspires

This competition does more than create pretty pictures for library walls. It shows students and scientists that the work they do in labs has an aesthetic beauty worth celebrating and sharing with the world.

More than 500 community members voted in the competition, proving that people genuinely want to engage with scientific concepts when they're presented in accessible, visual ways. The winning pieces will be permanently displayed in Carlson Library, where they'll continue inspiring curiosity for years to come.

The contest is funded by an endowment from Trustee Emeritus Ed Hajim and his wife Barbara, who clearly understand that bridging the gap between art and science creates connections that pure data never could.

Science is discovering that the universe runs on patterns, whether in fungal networks, genetic code, or the way knowledge builds on itself, and these students just made those patterns impossible to ignore.