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Gorgeous Glass Sculptures of The Most Deadly Viruses


Turk

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Viruses are usually depicted as ugly, scary, almost weapon-like blobs just waiting to meddle inside of your body, but Luke Jerram sees them as something different. There isn't really a color to viruses after all they're smaller than the wavelength of visible light and as mere smears when viewed under a microscope, there's plenty of room left open when deciding how to illustrate them.

Since 2004, Jerram has been turning viruses and other pathogens into stunning glass sculptures that are just as eerie as they are beautiful as part of an ongoing series titled "Glass Microbiology." He chooses some of the most feared and deadly subjects out there too, making chilling portraits of everything from HIV to malaria.

Of course, creating the sculptures involves some amount of interpretation. They've been blown up to around 1 million times their actual size, and, according to The New York Times, have been exaggerated to make some of their more distinctive features appear all the more impressive.

Jerram does run his designs by a virologist before having them made though, suggesting that there's still a good degree of accuracy to the final product. According to the Times, after his sketches are checked over, the final design is sent off to a professional glass blower to create the sculpture. Five models are made of each design, and as he's added more, the sculptures have toured the world through museums and galleries. You can see some of Jerram's most intricate sculptures below, in a series of photographs taken by the artist himself.
EV 71 Hand Foot and Mouth Disease
2r5q7at.jpg

HIV
311x2sx.jpg

Swine Flu
2lnxqwm.jpg

SARS Corona Virus
211v03o.jpg

Adeno Virus
28i97hx.jpg

Ebola Virus
281d9aw.jpg

HPV
21jyon9.jpg

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/2/5267800/luke-jerram-glass-microbiology-gorgeous-sculptures-of-deadly-viruses

Comment: State-of-the-art images. :) AFAIK, Other pathogens in the source are not viruses, but bacterial or parasitic agents.

Edited by Turk
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Nice!

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