September 25, 2014

A Tribute to the Tiny Deaths of Cells

With all the grandeur of a Romantic-era painter’s sky, medical illustrator Melissa Sisk created this glowing tribute to the advantageous death of cells.

By Glendon Mellow

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

With all the grandeur of a Romantic-era painter's sky, medical illustrator Melissa Sisk created this glowing tribute to the advantageous death of cells.

Sisk describes how this image came about:

My image was inspired by RCSB PDB-101's "Molecule of the Month", apoptosomes. I focused on the stage when cytochrome-c's pop out of the mitochondria and attach to monomeric Apaf-1, which then form the apoptosomes.

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The human body and all of the biological processes which have evolved to make is who we are is still largely untapped territory for painters. Melissa Sisk is is demonstrating nothing less than a new way to look at ourselves, each one of us, a multitude of stories.

Links

For the third year running, we are turning September into a month-long celebration of science artists by delivering new sciart to invade your eyeballs. The SciArt Blitz! Can’t get enough? Check out what was previously featured on this day:

2013: Knowledge Pupates -art by Glendon Mellow

2012: Best. Dinosaur. Art. Ever. -art by Douglas Henderson

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