In April 2003, controversial British artist Damien Hirst, famed for his series of vivisectioned animals suspended in formaldehyde, announced plans to use a pickling technique to create a sculpture of three cows being crucified, The Sunday Times of London reported. "Hirst, still considered an enfant terrible though he is nearly 40, claims the piece reflects a 'religious phase' in his life."

[The price for two of Hirst's cows in formaldehyde? $300,000.]

[In 2003, researchers at the University of Western Australia and Georgia Institute of Technology created a "semi-living artist": a petri dish containing 50,000 rat neurons in Georgia was "shown" low-resolution photographs, and their responses, sent via electrodes over the Internet to a robotic arm in Australia, were used to produce colourful, childlike scribbles.]