Molecules into Cells: Depicting the Cellular Mesoscale

Fig. 2. David S. Goodsell, Human Nerve Synapse, 20 cm x 20 cm, 1993. Thought is trans­ lated into action at the nerve synapse. Shown here at 1 million-x magnification, acetylcholine molecules (tiny, white dots) are released from a nerve cell (top) and diffuse to the muscle cell (below), stimulating the cell to contract. (From The Machinery ofLife [New York: Springer Verlag, 1993]) MOLECULES INTO CELLS: DEPICTING THE CELLULAR MESOSCALE David S. Goodsell, Department of Mo­ lecular Biology, Scripps Research Insti­ tute, Lajolla, CA 92037, U.S.A. E-mail: . Web site: . Received 23June 1997. Acceptedfor publication by Roger F. Malina. If It Rained Here, an artists' book of digital images [1], is an investigation and celebration of the natural world. Abstract in mode and collage-like in method, the book holds up a mirror— not to faithfully reflect what we see, but to fracture, crop and reassemble it. Thus, while parts of images come from and may hint at a variety of life-forms, these are not pictures of cells and em­ bryos and water per se, but images of the elemental principles and forms be­ hind these phenomena. In addition to alluding to preexisting forms, these im278 Artists' Statements ...