Page 74 - Livre_MOW2018_FR

72 / THE FUTURE IS BLUE

GETTING THE MESSAGE ACROSS

The sea on film

To raise awareness

amongst a wide public,

Monaco Ocean Week 2018

organised several film

screenings in the evening.

FRAGILE LEGACY

BY DAVID O. BROWN

This 30 minute documentary looks at the heritage of
the Cornell Blaschka collection. It is made up of five
hundred glass models of marine invertebrates created
by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka and acquired in 1885
by Andrew Dixon White, the first president of Cornell
University in the USA. The collection is used to teach
marine biology.

Dr. Harvell and the filmmaker David O. Brown went
on a quest to find the live models which inspired this
unique collection 150 years ago. The film traces the life
and the evolution of these invertebrates whilst looking
at the beauty and fragility of marine biodiversity. How
many living species still exist from those which were
reproduced in the 19th century? And how did they
survive?

At the end of the screening, a discussion around the
theme of “Art and Science” was held with Dr. Harvell,
marine biologist at the Cornell University ecology and
© Michel Dagnino evolutionary biology department, and Nadia Ounaïs,
doctor of oceanology and director of international re-
lations at the Oceanographic Institute.