In the present work we aim to present certain positions with regard to the historical, philosophical and didactical dimensions of the problem of popularizing and teaching the relation between the visual arts and the natural sciences. Such an issue is, for example, the teaching approach on the notions of ‘light’ and ‘colour’. Furthermore, within the frame-work of teacher training mainly for pre-school as well as for primary school education there manifests itself the need for an interdisciplinary approach of certain issues linked to both natural sciences and visual arts.

The educational program ‘Science, Art and Technology’ of the Art Institute of Chicago from the point of view of the visual arts and the special edition of the Physics Education journal (2004) from the point of view of the natural sciences, are typical examples of the fruitful reflexion prevalent among these communities. 'The need for a convergence of the visual arts and the natural sciences within the framework of both formal (schools, universities) and non -formal education (museum) at the level of dissemination and popularization of this knowledge is something that has preoccupied the communities of artists, scientists and educators. Allowing room for both in the quest to understand our world will lead to an enriched experience. Art and science should each be evaluated on their own merit. Science sets out to reveal and explain our reality, whereas art comments and makes connections that don’t need to be tested by rigorous protocols.

Art and science share a common source, which leads to scrutiny and enquiry. As a print media artist, she explores the relationship between art and science in her studio practice and will present this historical connection with examples related to evolution, microbiology and her own work. Scientific illustrations have fuelled art, while visual modeling tools have assisted scientific research. However, this connection is currently growing stronger again through digital media and new imaging methods. She argues that the connection between art and science seems to have diminished during the twentieth century. She reflects on the historical relevance of visual representations for science. The connections between biological sciences, art and printed images are of great interest to the author. The possibility of even translate human thoughts (interpretations) is well exemplified in reconstructed extinct beings (overcoming time scale and fatality of inexistence) to astronomic phenomena or even tiny molecules that are far away from our visual capacity (overcoming dimensional scale). This essay analyses the historic relevance of scientific illustration as well as its evolving synergy with science until becoming inseparable matters of knowledge transmission, a universal language, a way of (de)codification scientific discourse and how, despite the new available technology devoted to representation (e.g., photography) due to the basic principle of scientific illustration: the representation of the archetype, or intangible idea, of each specie as an human concept and never as a concrete individual, even a quite representative one. Over time the representation of nature (illustration) has been addressed to fulfil different objectives (i.e., from religious, or totemic, to scientific, educational and/or technological) becoming an indispensable tool at the service of science and human knowledge in the present, i.e.

Nature has been the object of representation by man since the dawn of humankind.

Illustration scientific