Abstracts:

Informational technologies have radically changed the classical biological sciences – botany and zoology. It allowed us to create, save and analyse the images of different objects. One of the most interesting branches of computer biology are so-called virtual biological collections or museums. Usually, biological museums contain the collections of the fixed samples. The virtual biological museum (VBM) have avoided these problems and can solve the crucial problem of the safety of natural image of biological objects. The digital photo- and videocameras allow to create the images of living animals and plants.
One of the first projects is Virtual biological museum of flat objects (VBM) in Pushchino Biological Centre of Russian Academy of Sciences.
Majority of the living objects are three-dimensional, but now is technically difficult and expensive to made such a collection. So, the first step of the VBM would be the collections of so called “flat” biological objects, whose image can be adequately presented at the flat screens. Among them are leaves of plants, wings of butterflies.
The future collections of VBM will also consist of images of drawings of the same biological objects (plant leaves and wings of butterflies). It will help in find out the mathematical algorithms of the human perception. So, VBM sure to be an example of Goethe''s synthesis of natural and artistic traditions in the museum affair.
Project supported by RFP “Integracia” project В0018, and RFBR, grant 01-07-97059-р2001podmoskovie_v