Monday, April 28, 2008
Bassett, Gruber 3D Anatomical Atlas Going Online
Stanford University is bringing online the famous 3D anatomical image collection created by David L. Bassett and William B. Gruber in the early 1960's.
From the New York Times:
Working closely with William Gruber, the inventor of the View-Master, the three-dimensional viewing system that GAF Corporation popularized as a toy in the 1960s, Dr. Bassett created the 25-volume "Stereoscopic Atlas of Human Anatomy" in 1962. It included some 1,500 pairs of slides, along with line drawings that made the details more discernible. The paired slides could be examined with a View-Master, making the chest cavity look cavernous, and making details of structure and tissue stand out unforgettably.The atlas was an immediate success and the images became an important resource for medical students, even more so as schools have de-emphasized gross anatomy and cadaver work. But the atlas eventually went out of publication in the 1960s.
More: The Body in Depth...
The Bassett Collection on Flickr...
Slideshow featuring some of the collection's images, and a photo of Dr. David L. Bassett and William B. Gruber working the View-Master...
Flashback: Bassett Anatomical Image Collection Goes Online
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Monday, April 28, 2008
Kaibo Zonshinzu Anatomy Scrolls Online
The Tohoku University Library in Japan has an online display of the painfully real Kaibo Zonshinzu anatomy scrolls, painted in 1819 by Kyoto-area physician Yasukazu Minagaki. The style is markedly different to the Western anatomy drawings, showing blood and gore, and often faces of convicts status post decapitation.
More at the Pink Tentacle...
Full gallery at the Tohoku University Library...
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Friday, April 18, 2008
Med Lab Art
Designer Andrew Aloisio out of Australia has created a collection of lamps, entitled Somewhere In Between, built out of biotech laboratory equipment.
See more works at Dezeen...
(hat tip: Gizmodo)
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Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Cameras As Art
Wayne Martin Belger is an artist with a specialty of making photo cameras that include unusual components in the mechanism, often not for the squeamish. Below is a piece entitled Untouchable (HIV) and features a most novel way of implementing a color filter.
4"x5" camera made from Aluminium, Copper, Titanium, Acrylic and HIV positive blood. The blood pumps through the camera then in front of the pinhole and becomes my #25 red filter. Designed to shoot a geographic comparison of people suffering from HIV.
More from the artist also known as Boy of Blue..
(hat tip: Boing Boing)
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008
"Design and the Elastic Mind" at MOMA
The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York is hosting an exhibition titled Design and the Elastic Mind featuring artworks influenced, and often created, by science.
From a statement by MOMA:
In the past few decades, individuals have experienced dramatic changes in some of the most established dimensions of human life: time, space, matter, and individuality. Working across several time zones, traveling with relative ease between satellite maps and nanoscale images, gleefully drowning in information, acting fast in order to preserve some slow downtime, people cope daily with dozens of changes in scale. Minds adapt and acquire enough elasticity to be able to synthesize such abundance. One of design's most fundamental tasks is to stand between revolutions and life, and to help people deal with change. Designers have coped with these displacements by contributing thoughtful concepts that can provide guidance and ease as science and technology evolve. Several of them—the Mosaic graphic user's interface for the Internet, for instance—have truly changed the world. Design and the Elastic Mind is a survey of the latest developments in the field. It focuses on designers' ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and social mores, changes that will demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior, and convert them into objects and systems that people understand and use.The exhibition will highlight examples of successful translation of disruptive innovation, examples based on ongoing research, as well as reflections on the future responsibilities of design. Of particular interest will be the exploration of the relationship between design and science and the approach to scale. The exhibition will include objects, projects, and concepts offered by teams of designers, scientists, and engineers from all over the world, ranging from the nanoscale to the cosmological scale. The objects range from nanodevices to vehicles, from appliances to interfaces, and from pragmatic solutions for everyday use to provocative ideas meant to influence our future choices.
Being the simpletons that we are, our eyes were quickly attracted to the smiley faces built out of DNA base pairs by Paul W.K. Rothemund of Caltech, a technology that was reported by us before. From Rothemund 's website explaining the technique:
Lately, I have developed a method of creating nanoscale shapes and patterns using DNA. Each of the two smiley faces above, at right, are actually giant DNA complexes imaged with an atomic force microscope. Each is about 100 nanometers across (1/1000th the width of a human hair), 2 nanometers thick, and each is comprised of about 14,000 DNA bases. 7000 of these DNA bases belong to a long single strand, a DNA molecule that just happens to be the genome of the virus M13. The other 7000 of these bases belong to about 250 shorter strands, each about 30 bases long. These short strands fold the long strand into the smiley face shape. I call the method "scaffolded DNA origami".
Exhibition page: Design and the Elastic Mind
More at the New York Times...
Top image caption: William M Shih, Clonable DNA Octahedron, 2004
"Molecular self-assembly offers a means of spontaneously forming complex and well-defined structures from simple components," Shih explains. This model represents a single-strand DNA molecule that folds into an octahedron structure. "We used cryo-electron microscopy to show that the DNA strands fold successfully to form hollow octahedra approximately twenty-two nanometers in diameter," he continues. The model represents an average of about one thousand particles and represents a magnification of four-million-fold.
(hat tip: bookofjoe)
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Monday, March 24, 2008
Beating, Bleeding Heart
To entertain everyone at its 2008 Gala in New York, the American Heart Association displayed this artwork by Billy Chasen, an installation that's not meant for the squeamish:
(hat tip: BoingBoing)
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Anatomical Street Art
Street Anatomy, a splendid blog that obsessively discovers the human body in art, advertising, and design, is featuring a gallery of street art that plays with the human body on sign posts, sidewalks and walls.
Anatomical Street Art Gallery...
Hospital administrators looking for interesting ideas on how to decorate the OR rooms, can browse through the rest of Street Anatomy...
(hat tip: Wooster Collective)
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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Wellcome Image Awards 2008
A cluster of breast cancer cells showing visual evidence of programmed cell death (apoptosis) in yellow.
The Wellcome Trust has just announced the winners of this year's Wellcome Image Awards (previously known as the Biomedical Image Awards):
The 22 award-winning images for this year all have a fascinating story to tell, including:Red blood cells oozing from a ruptured vessel - revealing how a genetic mutation can lead to haemorrhaging similar to that seen in the blood vessels that feed developing cancers, by Anne Weston, Cancer Research UK. The image of a circle of DNA, created using a molecular dynamics simulation to study whether clay nanomaterials could have played a role in the origins of life by protecting DNA in extreme conditions, has been made by Mary-Ann Thyveetil of University College London. A mouse embryo, using a new technique - optical projection tomography - to examine internal structures, without the need for cutting sections, by James Sharpe Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh. Image of crystals of oxidised vitamin C by Spike Walker reveals the beautiful, almost marine-like shapes created by the crystallisation of this important vitamin. The ease with which vitamin C is oxidised is vitally important in protecting cells from damaging free radicals.
More after the jump. Take a stroll through an online gallery: Wellcome Image Awards 2008
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Thursday, March 6, 2008
Bees, Another Diagnostic Modality
Susana Soares, a Portuguese artist, is proposing a way to utilize the amazing chemical sensing of the bees to diagnose diseases. By training groups of bees to fly into specific caverns within a space after sensing a particular smell, it seems theoretically possible to use the animals as honest to goodness medgadgets.
More from the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) exhibit...
(hat tip: Gizmodo)
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Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Photography in the O.R.
Dr Alfred Feingold, a retired anesthesiologist, runs a photo website of his camera work done in the operating rooms over many years of the practice. The collection features portraits of various OR personnel at work as well photographic images of procedures. No doubt some of the material is not for the squeamish, but we wouldn't expect that kind of behavior from this audience, would we?
(hat tip: BoingBoing)
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Wednesday, February 13, 2008
"Bodies of Knowledge"
The British Library is hosting an online gallery in a collection devoted to the different ways that the human body has been portrayed through drawing. From medieval suppositions about the body to Indian yogic images, and Fritz Kahn's imagination, the collection gives a general overview of how we've been seeing ourselves throughout the centuries.
Online exhibit: Bodies of Knowledge
(hat tip: BoingBoing)
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Neurostamps
The University of Washington hosts a "Neuroscience for Kids" website, which features a gallery of postage stamps dedicated to neurological disorders, imaging modalities, scientists, and good graphic design, of course. Link...
(hat tip: BoingBoing)
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Monday, February 11, 2008
Surgical Latex Glove Lamp
Katarina Britse of the Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden came up with this interesting lamp. It does look good for now. Likely not to last for too long: latex-based materials tend to deteriorate over time, as anyone who finds old rubber bands discovers.
(hat tip: bookofjoe)
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Friday, February 8, 2008
Dark Medical Art: Human Black Box
Revital Cohen, a student at the Royal College of Art in Britain, created a somewhat macabre medical art piece by crossing a digital picture frame with an EKG machine.
When digital technologies enter and merge with the body, they redefine its material and functional properties. As the human anatomy gains technological capabilities, where does the body end and the machine begin?The Telepresence Frame is a domestic object which utilises the fact that one's bodily functions are digitised in order to create a new form of telepresence. Allowing loved ones to be constantly aware of your physical state.
The Human Black Box records and stores this information, keeping a record of your very last moments.
Project page: LIFE SUPPORT
(hat tip: Gizmodo)
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Sonic Body: Experience the Sights and Sounds from Inside
What do you get when you lock a cardiovascular surgeon in a room with a bunch of artists? An art exhibit called the Sonic Body that lets you experience the human body with your senses from inside.
The Sonic Body is an audio-installation that uses interactive technology to create an orchestra of the human body. Developed as collaboration between four interdisciplinary artists and a heart surgeon, the installation brings together art and medical-science to reveal the unheard sounds of the body.
Sonic Body...
(hat tip: Make)
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Friday, January 25, 2008
Historical Medical Photography
The National Museum of Public Health has uploaded to Flickr a selected collection of photos from its archives of hundreds of thousands.
The National Museum of Health and Medicine has been uploading pictures to Flickr since September 2006. We've transcribed, of course, all information that we have for each picture, but have also been posting some for which we have relatively little information, such as Library of Congress is doing, with the hope that a Flickr user will recognize them and be able to tell us more.We've been uploading the hard way, mostly one picture at a time, choosing from among the several hundred thousand we've been digitizing over the last three years. Until that database goes live, this is our way of sharing our favorite photos from our many collections.
Flickr Set 1...
Flickr Set 2...
Flickr Set 3...
(hat tip: Boing Boing via Morbid Anatomy)
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Monday, December 3, 2007
Nucleus Medical Art in CG Channel
CG Channel, an online magazine dedicated to computer graphics, talks about Nucleus Medical Art, a company specializing in some of the finest graphics in medicine, some of which we've covered on these pages.
The company requires that all of its medical illustrators and animators-of which there currently are 16-have collegiate medical training. (Currently, all such creatives have undergraduate degrees in science, and nearly all have such graduate degrees.)..."We recently completed a project for [Biomet, Inc.] demonstrating their new bone growth-stimulator technology," says Brown, this client being a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of orthopedic-implant solutions for replacement of the hip, knee, shoulder, elbow and small joints. "The project was unique in that we needed to take the view from a gross level of anatomy (bodily system-wide, large-scale) and medical device operation to a cellular level of reaction, then deeper to a molecular level mechanism of action, back to a cellular level reaction, and finally back to the gross anatomy level outcome. CINEMA 4D's exquisite materials and Advanced Render module allowed the animation team to render elegant shots at the gross level. The MoGraph module, in conjunction with Thinking Particles and Pyrocluster, was used extensively to develop the complex motions and visual effects at the microscopic level. The result was an animation with a perfect visual arch and continuity thanks to everything being produced within C4D using modules."
More from CG Channel...
Flashbacks: 3D Animations from Nucleus Medical; World's Most Popular Medical Animation?
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Monday, November 19, 2007
DNA Portraits™ by DNA 11
How about a portrait of the Southern Blot of your own DNA? Thanks to DNA 11, Inc., an Ottawa, Ontario based company, this is now possible, even in time for the holidays. The company will send you a swab to scoop some cells from inside your cheek, and in return you get a large portrait:
The tough part is choosing the style, color, size and frame from an almost limitless range of possibilities. Take all the time you need. Your DNA Portrait will be as unique as you are.Additional Options:
Combine two, three or four people's DNA in a single canvas
Choose from a variety of sizes
25 custom color combinations
Art comes ready to hang or rolled in a tube
Add your signature to your art piece
Get a digital file of your art (optional) with every print purchase
Each art piece comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by the co-founders
100% unconditional money back guarantee
Product page: DNA Art by DNA 11 ...
(hat tip: ScienceRoll)
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Wednesday, October 10, 2007
World's Most Popular Medical Animation?
An article published at SmartImagebase.com claims that animation from Nucleus Medical Art Inc., a Kennesaw, Georgia company, "may just be the most widely viewed medical animation in the world."
So far, the animation has been watched over 630,000 times on Youtube and well over 1,500,000 times on the company's web site in the past year.
Just amazing! Check out all other animations and illustrations from Nucleus Medical Art, on YouTube and on company's website...
Article: World's Most Popular Medical Animation? ...
Flashback: 3D Animations from Nucleus Medical
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» Nikon Small World 2007 (October 5, 2007)
» Nano Object Pretending to be a Medgadget (October 4, 2007)
» 2007 NSF Scientific Visualization Awards Announced (September 28, 2007)
» Nanomedicine Video Wins Aurora Animation Award (September 13, 2007)
» BrainPaint for Art, Maybe Diagnostics (September 7, 2007)
» Heart as Art (September 5, 2007)
» Antique Medical Art Auction at Christie's (September 4, 2007)
» Worst Case Scenario (August 7, 2007)
» 3D Animations from Nucleus Medical (July 30, 2007)
» Nikon Small World Voting Open (July 11, 2007)
» The Wellcome Collection (June 21, 2007)
» A Dancer on Prostheses (June 11, 2007)
» Cloaca Distills the Essense of Modern Art (May 29, 2007)
» The X-Ray Project (April 25, 2007)
» Science In Silico (April 23, 2007)
» Heavy Metal (April 12, 2007)
» Eye Disease Gave Great Painters a Different Vision of Their Work (April 11, 2007)
» DNA Ink + Fetal Art = Creepy (April 9, 2007)
» It's Alive, and It's Kind of Disturbing (February 20, 2007)
» The Art of Cvetomir Georgiev (January 29, 2007)
» Getting Into "Into Me / Out of Me" (January 23, 2007)
» Eye of Science (December 29, 2006)
» 2006 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition (December 15, 2006)
» Waltz of the Polypeptides (December 5, 2006)
» What is the Insane Secret of this Painting? (December 4, 2006)
» Metallosis Maligna and the Medgadget Sci Fi Contest (November 28, 2006)
» Small World 2006 (November 22, 2006)
» Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Wii) Operating Gameplay (November 17, 2006)
» Head Sculpture from Ortho Plates, Screws (November 16, 2006)
» The Inner Life of the Cell: A Full Version (October 27, 2006)
» "Ballistic Gelatin" Cadavers Hit the Theater (October 27, 2006)
» Anatomy Goes to Second Life (October 24, 2006)
» Cancer Vixen (October 23, 2006)
» OA Simulation Suit (October 17, 2006)
» Is that an ear on your arm?! (October 9, 2006)
» 2006 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge Winners (September 29, 2006)
» The Inner Life of the Cell (part two) (September 26, 2006)
» Anti-smoking Message in a Cigarette (September 25, 2006)
» Shocking Into CPR (September 22, 2006)
» The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art (September 14, 2006)
» MedicalIllustrator (August 10, 2006)
» Japanese Psych Drug Advertisements (August 8, 2006)
» Tissue Culture (August 3, 2006)
» The Future Home of Institute for Nanobiomedical Technology and Membrane Biology in Chengdu, China (July 31, 2006)
» Biomedical Image Awards 2006 (July 19, 2006)
» Dancers Plier about DNA (June 16, 2006)
» The 2006 Art of Science Exhibition at Princeton (June 9, 2006)
» Art Makes Doctors More Thoughtful, Less Cubist (May 31, 2006)
» Fascinating Collection of Scientific Images (May 24, 2006)
» Of Human Bindings (May 16, 2006)
» Naked Ads Emphasize Protection (May 16, 2006)
» Emotion's Defibrillator (May 12, 2006)
» Sand Sculptor to Spread Awareness of AIDS (May 3, 2006)
» The Anatomia Collection (1522-1867) (April 11, 2006)
» The proAesthetics Collection (April 10, 2006)
» "Eyeglasses Through the Ages": An Online Exhibit (April 7, 2006)
» body image | body essence (December 19, 2005)
» Beauty Is Not Skin Deep (But Ethics May Be) (November 18, 2005)
» Small World 2005 (November 1, 2005)
» Ecce Homology: Drawing with DNA (July 22, 2005)
» The 2005 Art of Science Exhibition at Princeton (June 13, 2005)
» Quack, Quack, Quack (March 31, 2005)
» Visionary Anatomies (March 24, 2005)
» Dream Anatomy (March 11, 2005)
at the National Museum of Health and Medicine">» "The Human Body Revealed" at the National Museum of Health and Medicine (February 8, 2005)
">» "The Architecture and Design of Man and Woman" (December 27, 2004)
