Colours

When I lived in Amsterdam, I particularly enjoyed the Stedelijk Museum. There's a few wonderful Abstract Expressionist and Abstract pieces there upstairs - Cathedra, by Barnett Newman, a glowing wall of ethereal blue, and a Rothko containing a melting horizon. Yves Klein's moonrock alien blue landscape.

There's more to Abstract Expressionism than colours or chaos. Intent. Meaning. Emotions. Contemplation. But equally, part of the pleasure is the casual interpretation. And doesn't it all sometimes look like a big, glorious, mess?

In science, colours are blooming too, abstract interpretations from rational intent. The Brainbow, shades of fluorescence used to tag not only neurones but fibres of the tongue, the stem cells of the small intestine. Stem cells producing the blood cells. A mess to the untrained eye, a precise labelling system to the scientific one. Beauty in the chaos of identification.