Cognition Enhancer in Santa Fe is a colorful public sculpture, molecular puzzle, and wild local legend all in one.
Cognition Enhancer
Santa Fe
What’s that jumble of colorful spheres resembling a humongous toddler puzzle right about where Saint Francis Drive becomes U.S. 285 in Santa Fe?
Officially titled Cognition Enhancer, the sculpture represents a molecule magnified into towering metal. Installed in 1999, it was commissioned by Daylight Chemical Information Systems, a cheminformatics firm founded by eccentric visionary David Weininger. Santa Fe had earned the moniker “Info Mesa” in the ’90s, fostering a reputation for—you guessed it—chemical data stuff. Weininger became our very own Steve Jobs by inventing SMILES, a chemical notation system still widely used today.
Here’s where the facts get fuzzy—and fascinating. Weininger had another card up his sleeve; supposedly he developed a “cognitive-enhancing” drug so powerful he believed humanity wasn’t ready for it. According to myth, he shelved the project and commissioned sculptor Steve Kline to create the artwork as a kind of enigmatic puzzle—perhaps a little advanced for toddlers.
Whether there’s truth to the legend remains elusive, but there’s one prominent Santa Fean who might know more. Before his death in 2016, Weininger befriended A Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, and ultimately left him the Daylight building. It now houses Martin’s Stagecoach Foundation.
So, consider these rumors with however many grains of salt you deem appropriate, as this uniquely Santa Fean jumble of science, art, and myth, greets or bids you adieu at the city limits.
If you’re in the area, check out the big field directly across 285 from Cognition Enhancer, home to the largest prairie dog colony in the city, which is tended to by a legion of volunteer prairie dog advocates.
