Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait, 1986NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON
Andy Warhol epitomized New York City’s hip art scene in the early 1960s, and he was always surrounded by a host of “superstar” writers, musicians, artists, and underground celebrities. Think Capote, Burroughs, Dylan, Lou Reed, to name a few. Warhol worked hard and partied harder. Photographs of the day typically show a tousled or bewigged Warhol late at night, arm-in-arm with models like Nico, Edie Sedgwick, and Baby Jane Holzer.
Naked mole-rats make me think of Warhol. With their decidedly odd looks—described by some as resembling “saber-toothed sausages”—and even more bizarre physiology, these underground rodents may just be the hippest new models for studying a host of physiological processes. They don’t get cancer even though they typically live to really ripe old rodent ages; they ...
