Artist focuses lens on viruses

Lennart Nilsson is 84, but still speaks of scientific photography -- a field he pioneered -- with infectious enthusiasm and emotion. Especially when talking of his latest project, in which he uses a lab at Stockholm's Karolinska Institutet to capture images of viruses at work -- nature's "real biological terrorists," he said.Scientists say Nilsson's work reveals important scientific clues, earning him membership to the Swedish Society of Medicine, and an honorary doctorate in medicine from Karolinska Institutet. "What colleagues of mine found extremely interesting from my pictures is that the viruses show quite different dimensions from each other," Nilsson told The Scientist. "Some viruses are bigger than others and this is something that scientists still do not understand." "It was very crucial for us to see [Nilsson's images of] how the virus attaches to the cell and [what] it looks like," added Pernilla Persson, a scientist who works on flu vaccines at the Smittskyddsinstitutets (Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control), and passed some H5N1 samples on to the photographer. "I think that Nilsson's art does an extremely good service to science," she said. Furthermore, Nilsson's work helps fill "the gap between people and scientists," she added. "Most of the time people do not know what [scientists] do and do not understand our papers; Nilsson's pictures provide people another point of view." Nilsson is perhaps most famous for his photographs of an in vivo human embryo -- the first photos of a live embryo -- published in the 1965 book "A Child is Born," now translated in 20 different languages. Indeed, NASA's Voyager space program sent these images into space, considering them the best representation of human life.For his latest project, Nilsson captured three-dimensional images of the H5N1 virus. To prepare the viruses, scientists infected canine kidney cells, routinely used for culturing influenza virus, with a modified, non-pathogenic strain of the virus.Before taking any pictures, Nilsson said he adds platinum particles above the surface of the viral cells, to buffer the abundant electrons and prevent them from interfering with the image. Using the high resolution scanning electron microscope at Karolinska, Nilsson said he can reach a resolution of 4-5 nanometers, which he plans to refine further to 0.1 nanometers, or 1 Å (Ångström). Not everything goes smoothly, and sometimes the microscope detects the metals Nilsson has to add to the preparation, producing artifacts. Nilsson's latest project involves understanding how to get into organelles, taking 3-D shots even further inside the cell to illuminate how the H5N1 RNA gives orders to the host cell. "The very moment the virus enters the cells, I think, is what scientists are expecting me to capture," said the photographer. Scientists continue to draw inspiration from Nilsson's work. "Even though people already had some kind of mental picture of gamete interaction, by the time Lennart Nilsson's first EM micrographs started to be published, his stunning images had a truly profound impact on scientists," noted Luca Jovine, group leader at Karolinska Institutet. "Certainly, as a young scientist working on mammalian fertilization, I have been highly inspired by Nilsson's work, which has pushed me to go deeper into this basic biological problem," Jovine added.Nilsson has received awards for the 1982 TV series "The Saga of Life," as well as 1996's "The Miracle of Life." His work is now part of collections in museums throughout the world, including the British Museum in London and the Modern Museum in Stockholm.Some of his images appear in his latest book Life, which includes a visual account of human development from DNA to stem cells, the first stages of viral development, and the effect of atmospheric pollution.Image (on homepage): Life, p.280 HIV virus, copyright Boehringer Ingelheim International Gmbh.Marta Paterlini mail@the-scientist.comLinks within this articleLennart Nilsson http://www.lennartnilssonphoto.com/default2.aspJ. Adams, "A lens on nature," The Scientist, February 16, 2004. http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/14452H5N1 virus pictures in Dagens Nyheter http://www.dn.se/content/1/c6/48/45/01/Fagelvirus.swfLennart Nilsson http://www.lennartnilssonaward.se/bio.htmlLuca Jovine http://www.novum.se/english/forskning_luca_jovine.phpLife http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/minisites/life/

Artist focuses lens on viruses

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