Hair samples from TAG members were given to Sandie on Monday (28th Jan) during the group session and have been posted for imaging. Intrigued by Sandie's comment, "Hair samples in the post of various lengths and with various methods of removal". Hopefully not too painful! ~James 

Interesting and kind of related, but no relevance to microscope images... ~James

Photo: Jimmy Chen

Read an increasing article in this week's Nature journal on how DNA could replace magnetic storage media for archiving information. Shakespeare's sonnets, books, photos and even an audio clip from Martin Luther King's speech have been successively recorded on and retrieved from DNA. The data should last for millennia, beyond the lifetime of your average hard disc. ~James

Some of you will have seen this before, but there is a website 'Scale of the Universe' that enables you to 'scroll through' the universe, from the furthest stars to the contents of atoms and everything in between. Well worth a look. There is also a Youtube version. ~James

There are many examples of combining art and science/microscope images, some of which I'll post here in due course. The petri dish paintings by Klari Reis and their motivation, however, seem to capture a 'response to science' that I had in mind for the project. In other words, the art is not necessarily trying to reproduce the science (micrographs) using different media, which is interesting in it's own right, but add 'something': in this case, Reis's diagnosis with Crohn's Disease. Having said that, I think 3D accurate models would also be welcome: the other end of the spectrum. No doubt the responses will be varied. ~James

Planning the Thornhill Art Group visit to the University of Portsmouth. The purpose of the event is for the group to see the atomic force microscope in operation and to scan some hair samples. I'm sure this will stimulate lots of interest and discussion and add a new dimension to their artistic interpretations. ~James

Read a fascinating article in the RMS InFocus magazine by Martyn Kelly, a freelance aquatic biologist who combines his science and artistic interests. Captivating artistic works. More pictures and info are on his website. ~James

This domain name has now been purchased to maintain this website for 5 years. ~James

Thinking of putting together a video (youtube?) to discuss features of the AFM images. This should aid the science-to-art communications and provide a means of repeating content and pausing etc. The images in the video will be the same as those in the packs given to the artists. ~James 

Looking through the University of Swansea 2012 Research as Art competition winners on the Guardian website. Thought the Knitted Protein Model (Josie Parker, College of Medicine) was particularly inspiring. ~James