The beauty of fish bones

Dead fish find new life in a new exhibit at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.

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Sandwiched between two floors of dead fish at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences, Kyle Luckenbill is creating art.

As the Academy's curatorial assistant resident dead fish paparazzo he photographs and x-rays the institution's 3,000 species-defining specimens as part of a National Science Foundation grant. "We didn't really plan an exhibit with the project, but it was one of those things where it was sort of a no-brainer," Luckenbill says.

So far, Luckenbill has x-rayed about 500 specimens, about a dozen of which are on display in an exhibit called "All Types of Fishes," part of the museum's rotating "Art of Science" series. "Imagery like this is really created as a scientific tool, but we look at it and say, 'but gosh, it's beautiful!'," says Barbara Ceiga, vice president for public operations at the Academy. "Sometimes people who actually are producing it are like, 'you want to hang what on the ...

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