Revision as of 15:29, 22 December 2006

The box Daniel found has an asymmetrical lemniscate shape imprinted on it.

An ouroboros symbol depicted in a lemniscate shape.

In his video Back At Bree's, Daniel returns to Bree's house to look for clues as to what might have happened to her parents. He says that he found something, but he does not say what it was. In a later video, Undisclosed Location, he demonstrates that he found a box with lemniscate imprinted on it, and in Breaking and Entering, he finds boxes with the same symbols.

Background

In algebraic geometry, the word lemniscate refers to any of several figure-eight or ∞ shaped curves, of which the best known is the Lemniscate of Bernoulli. It is also sometimes used to refer to the ∞ symbol used in mathematics as a symbol for infinity.

• Lemniscate of Bernoulli<ref>Wikipedia article on the Lemniscate of Bernoulli</ref>
• Lemniscate of Booth<ref>Wikipedia article on Lemniscate of Booth</ref>
• Lemniscat of Gerono<ref>Lemniscate of Gerono</ref>

A lemniscate could also be representative of the Ouroboros symbol.<ref>Wikipedia article on the Ouroboros symbol</ref> Although it is commonly depicted as a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle, it can also be found in the shape of a lemniscate. It has been used to represent many things over the ages, but it most generally symbolizes ideas of cyclicality, primordial unity, or the vicious circle. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations. In the last century, it has been interpreted by psychologists such as Carl Jung as having an archetypal significance to the human psyche. However, when Bree reveals that the symbol on the box is the logo for a company her father used to work for, the idea that the lemniscate was an allusion to the Ouroboros or any other mystical symbol became very unlikely.

Significance in the series

Daniel said that the box had an invoice in it, which he used to find information about the company from which it came. Although Daniel didn't provide any additional information, Bree commented on the symbol. In Skateboarding she mentions that the symbol looks familiar and that she thinks it was the logo of a company where her father used to work. He did research for them and specialized in ribozymes, so presumably the company researches genomes. In this context, the lemniscate symbol could be representative of the double helix shape of DNA.

References

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External Links

• Wikipedia article on Infinity