Images

To produce this artwork, I spent time in the Assisted Conception Unit and the Genetics Department of Guy's Hospital, London, closely observing scientific procedures, and looking through microscopes at chromosomes, eggs, and embryos. My conversations with staff gave me an understanding of their work and helped produce ideas for pieces.

Medical science and art are both inventive but in very different ways. Put them together and they can cross-fertilize and inspire each other. In this way, art can speak to science and science to art, and thereby together better address, and nurture, the human condition.

New Beginnings—2 cell

Images of blossoms are contained within the very first stages of human preimplantation development.

Cookie Cutters with Chromosomes

Animal chromosomes are reflected within each cookie cutter shape. These chromosome pictures are from a 1932 book, and although some numbers were found to be incorrect, the images show the great genetic similarities between species.

Chromosomal Stripy Socks

Human chromosomes, when viewed under the microscope, have the banded appearance of striped socks. These socks belong to staff members from the Cytogenetics Department of Guy's Hospital, London. Each chromosome, like a sock, is made of a long thread, although in the case of chromosomes, the thread is made of DNA. Each parent contributes one chromosome to each of the 23 pairs.