Neurobics

Picotaphs

Russell Dear

Suppose you were asked to think of a symbol that personifies John Lennon. What would you choose? A guitar, perhaps? Probably not; there are so many popular singers associated with guitars. Maybe a pair of old-fashioned glasses...

Symbols like these, called picotaphs are meant to identify well-known people. They are pictures that could be used on gravestones, thus the name picotaph. Ideally they should be simple in design, but this may not always be possible. Who do you think this picotaph represents:

Now try the following picotaphs, which all represent people associated with scientific endeavour:

Russell Dear is a Mathematician living in Invercargill