Painting the Protein Atomic, 1961

In 1958, British biochemist John Kendrew and colleagues published the first X-ray crystallography-generated atomic structure of a protein: that of myoglobin, a heme-binding protein found in muscle tissue. After several failed attempts to extract enough of the oxygen-carrying protein from horse meat, Kendrew succeeded in isolating sufficient amounts of myoglobin from sperm whales, which, like other deep-diving marine mammals, produce high levels of the protein. He then deduced myoglobin’s structure using a technique developed by Max Perutz, with whom Kendrew shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In a 1961 Scientific American article, Kendrew described the structure to a lay audience, enlisting the help of scientific illustrator Irving Geis to convert his complex physical models of myoglobin into a single painting. Geis’s artistic interpretation of the protein became the first molecular illustration meant for the general public. It proved to be a defining moment for the artist, who then dedicated ...