On a visit to Harvard's Natural History Museum we were caught, as so many others have been, by the beautiful glass flowers. They are very realistic artificial plants, made a hundred years ago by a father and son through methods lost to us. The exhibit hall was full of people impressed by their detail, craftsmanship, and realism.

If I'd seen them in a pot at the dentist's office, however, I would have dismissed them as just more fake flowers. Would I have been wrong to?