When cancer cells turned into a work of art!

Washington, Sept 7 : Combing art with science is not everybody's cup of tea, but Stefanie Reichelt, a scientist at the Cambridge Research Institute, is doing just that - by using cancer cells as a piece of art.

Stefanie thinks that cancer cells are beautiful, and her love for living cells is evident from the fact that she believes that when viewed under a microscope, all parts of the human body - from chromosomes to sperm - are visually arresting.

While she heads the microscopy laboratory, she also has an artistic streak. She was so taken with the beauty of the images produced by her team, which were artificially stained with a number of vibrant colours to highlight certain features, that she started to make a collection of etchings based on the microscopic vistas.

The pictures focus on uncontrolled cell division during cancer, leading to the formation of tumours.

Reichelt's work is being showcased at the institute, even though the pictures do not always generate a positive response.

"People sometimes say 'Oh no, pictures of cancer cells, that's horrible.' But then they see that they are actually very beautiful," Times Online quoted her, as saying.

The exhibition is free and runs until September 30, at ArtCell, the art gallery at Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute.

ANI