Norway rats

artist, Luke Jerram, also raises the issue of how the artificial colouring of scientific imagery affects our understanding of phenomena. Jerram is exploring the links between the artworks’ beauty, what they represent and their impact on humanity. The works are currently on show at the Smithfield Gallery in London and the swine flu virus has been acquired for display by the Wellcome Trust. The question of pseudo-colouring in biomedicine and its use for science communicative purposes is a vast and complex subject, he believes. In response to this, Jerram has created a series of transparent, three-dimensional, sculptures. The sculptures were designed in consultation with virologists from the University of Bristol using a combination of different scientific photographs and models. Jerram said: “It’s great to be exploring the edges of scientific understanding and visualisation of a virus. Scientists aren’t able to answer many of the questions I ask them, such as how the RNA is exactly fitted within the capsid? At the moment camera technology cannot answer these questions either. “We can photograph a virus with an electron microscope, but its sometimes difficult to see what is going on inside it because the technology is at the very edge of its capability and the resolution is not quite good enough. So you end up having to jump from what you can see to what you can infer from the chemical modelling,” he says. “There’s sometimes a gap and a certain amount of guesswork, and that edginess is quite interesting for me.” “I’m also pushing the boundaries of glassblowing. Some of my designs are simply too fragile and gravity would cause them to collapse under their own weight.” He hopes visitors will get a sense of the beauty of virology. “But there is also that fascinating tension between something that is very beautiful but which is also dangerous and having a terrible impact on humanity.”