Visited a craft shop in Southampton today, for purposes unrelated to the project, but found pieces of foam, felt and other materials that got me thinking about the laminated structure of the cuticle. Pieces of corrugated card reminded me of the striations. Some interesting models could be made using these materials. I purchased a few things, putting back brown coloured materials since hair colour comes from within the cortex not the cuticle, for the purpose of making some very basic models to explain some ideas to the artists. I thought the yellow foam could symbolise the high cysteine (sulphur containing amino acid) content of the tough, cross-linked A-layer. Coloured tissue paper could represent the thinner lipid layers. ~James

Going through 16 years worth of AFM hair images to select interesting ones to share with the artists.... effects of bleaching, length variation, different species, bronze age man, to name but a few. ~James

Started putting together this website. Early days. ~James

AFM images could be represented as landscapes.... ~James

A combination of AFM images of hair and holiday snaps.

The arrangement of cuticles on the surface of hair is similar to that of tiles on a roof. Both offer protection. ~James

Roof tiles from a buttress structure at St James's Church,
West End, Southampton

First visit to Thornhill Art Group in Southampton. Talked about the project and shared various AFM images of hair and DNA that stimulated lots of interesting discussions. Questions such as 'Do cuticles flap about or are they stuck down? Do grey hairs look different? What about curly hair?  ~James

Finding interesting AFM images of hair and DNA to share with Thornhill Art Group this coming Monday. ~James

Jacqui Smith to compose some flute music, with accompanying instrumental backing where appropriate, based on AFM images of hair and DNA. Welcome! Visit her website on www.jacquismithmusic.com ~James