We’ve made an artistic interpretation of an eosinophil for the cover of the May edition of Haematologica. Eosinophils together with Neutrophils and Basophils are the three types of granulocytes present in human blood. They have a characteristic lobed nucleus (two to four lobes). Eosinophils are involved in the immune cell functions helping to destroy tumor cells and promote the repair of damaged tissue among other functions.

Also this month we designed the cover for the peer reviewed journal Haematologica. We have chosen for the molecular structure of the T-cell receptor. On the cover you can see the extracellular part of the receptor that sticks out of the plasma membrane. Two different protein chains are represented because the T-cell receptor is a heterodimer. The structure is based on the crystallographic data that are publicly available in the PDB database. Hope you like it!

Lymphocyte

The march edition of Haematologica features our artistic impression of a white blood cell on the cover. To be more specific, it is a 3D rendering of a lymphocyte. As you might know, there are many different types of white blood cells, each of them having different characteristics and functions. There are 3 main types of lymphocytes, T-cells, B-cells and NK-cells. They are relatively small, have a big nucleus and have a spherical shape. Lymphocytes have their main function in the immune system to combat infections and pathogens.

This cover illustration was modeled with Blender and rendered with Cycles. Composition and post-processing was done with Adobe Photoshop.

Everyone has talents and skills. In many cases these talents and skills are unique. They often even reach extra-ordinary levels.

But…. They stay unnoticed too… Nobody except some close relatives and friends will ever experience them.

That’s a shame.

A loss of talent

A lost opportunity to give something to the world

And you know why? Most people don’t make the effort to get noticed. Most people think that talent will be picked up if the time is right. Somebody will see it and then everything will change…

Like in a fairy tale or in Good Will hunting.

Nope, that is not how it works. You can be the best writer or painter, as long nobody will see your work, you will stay in the darkness.

So what you have to do? You have to show the world what your talent is. That is the only way to get noticed. To spread your work as far as possible.

Before the Internet this was not so evident, it was not so easy to reach thousands of people in the old days.

But now that there are no barriers, this is easy. Very easy. Everybody can start a website, blog, Facebook page etc… with potentially thousands of visitors a day.

Potentially indeed… Now we face another problem… There is so much stuff on the Internet that it is becoming extremely difficult to get noticed. To stand out of the crowd.

So we are back to square one…

or not…

At somersault18:24 we believe that doing the effort to show your talents will always pay off more than not doing anything. We are strong believers that good art and good science needs to be spread. This is beneficial for everyone, it is our duty to do it.

So that is why we want to open our Facebook page as a platform for all of you to show your talents. The only requirement is that it has to be related to science and art. So, if you are a science/nature photographer, science writer, science illustrator, science cartoonist, science animator, science sculptor, science artist in general…. etc etc. Please send us a message with your work (one piece at a time) with a short description. We have created an album called “in the spotlight” (http://on.fb.me/WfCR8E) where your work will appear and thousands of people will see it. You will get immediate feedback. You will love it.

Show the world you exist. And that you have something to say.

Hemoglobin on the cover of Haematologica (Feb 2013)

The February edition of the journal Haematologica is out!

This is why some people appear bright until they speak.

Recipe for a Human Cell

Serves 1 (2 after mitosis)

Ingredients

For the cytoplasm base:
4 cups of water
1 tsp of cytoskeleton
2 tsp of enzymes
a pinch of salt

For the topping:

1 tsp endoplasmic reticulum
1 tsp golgi apparatus
23 pairs of chromosomes
100g of mitochondria
1 nucleus
handful fresh ribosomes

Method:

1. Make the cytoplasm base: Put in a large bowl the cytoskeleton, and stir in the enzymes and salt. Pour in the lukewarm water and bring together with a wooden spoon until you have a soft, fairly wet dough. Then roll out the dough into large rounds, one per cell, using a rolling pin.

2. Top and bake: Heat the oven to 37.0 °C (98.6 °F). Add a nucleus and smooth the 23 pairs of chromosomes in it with the back of a spoon. Scatter with the endoplasmic reticulum around it . Drizzle with golgi apparatus and mitochondria. Bake for 8-10 minutes until crisp. Serve with fresh ribosomes.
Repeat steps for making more cells.

This comment I hear quite often. And it is valid for most science illustration resources…. I faced the same problem in the past.

I wanted a resource of high quality science illustrations that I could actually use.
Turned out that there is no such thing. So I started to build it for myself: a library of science illustrations.

Other scientists around me were also interested and I started drawing illustrations for them too.

And you know what? They liked it! They even got compliments.

This stimulated me to do it on larger scale and the somersault18:24 library of science illustrations was born.

You probably wonder what is so different about this library and other resources of science illustrations.

Well, one thing that is really different is that you can make suggestions for new illustrations. As a consequence you can control how the library will evolve. You can tailor it to your needs.

You just have to fill a simple online suggestion box with your request and we’ll do the rest. We will prioritize these suggestions always.

Once a week we add new illustrations to the library, meaning that you don’t have to wait for ages for your illustrations.

It is like having your own design team working for you. Isn’t that wonderful?

If you like this idea, feel free to take a subscription here, you can always register first as a free member to test it out.