Room: 104
27.08.2010, Friday 17.00 - 18.15
Organizer and speaker: Cornelia Hesse-Honegger, swiss artist
The artist Cornelia Hesse-Honegger speaks about her field studies as scientific illustrator on the malformation of true bugs (Heteroptera). More than 16,000 individuals were collected over two decades, and subjected to inspection. Various types of morphological disturbances were illustrated with watercolors and correlated to the geographical location. Depending on region, severe morphological changes and high degrees of malformations were noticed, especially in the regions of nuclear powerplants in Switzerland (Aargau), France (La Hague) and Germany (Gundremmingen). Malformations reached values as high as 22% and 30% for morphological and total disturbances, respectively, and are likely due to mutations.