On Molecular Beauty

I was surprised at how a talk about science, medicine and cellular structure could nearly bring me to tears. Medical Illustrator David Bolinsky, who I couldn't even find on the TED schedule walks on the stage and does just that. I turned around at one point and noticed another woman crying.

He addresses both truth and beauty, two words that resonated with me and likely other women in the audience. He discusses ways that beauty and truth can be and should be used in mathematics and science.

David is working on a new project to show Harvard medical students visuals of molecules, hearts, capillaries, cells, in a way that will provoke passion, compassion and better insight. In this new 'visual world,' they can see both beauty and moving passionate organs inside the human body.

For this talk, the visuals spoke even larger than the words - see below for some amazing close-up vibrantly colorful shots of cells and activity in the world that I took from the front row.....an amazing correlation and flow between one cell and another. The images below will show you why I and others had so much emotion. This was truly astounding.