Art, science and a nod to an artist friend

On my second day here at Blogger I decided to work on the layout of the blog. Art has run strong in my family, and I have always enjoyed drawing. Indeed, one of my joys of classrooms with lots of white boards is the possibility of making  diagrams and drawings, of which my techie students dutifully take pictures.
But back to the blog, I am very aware of the importance of design, particularly colors and images, so I struggled trying to choose my own template. This is not the final one for sure, but I liked the bold orange color. Then I thought about images and after some trials I decided for Alex Lago's image "The wolf's motives."
Alex Lago was my classmate at college in Biochemistry, back in the 80's. That he would go on to study art and become a known artist just blows my mind. I have always had the belief that science and art has many connections, and true scientists tend to be very artistic. Nikon Small World competition showcases the art of science through microscopy, and I can attest to the beauty seen through the lenses. One of my areas of expertise was microscopy, and I am convinced that big part of it was the possibility of seeing all those beautiful colors and shapes, chasing the best shot in a darkened room. Like this one for instance- one of my first shots at confocal microscopy circa 2000: GFP-tagged TNF in melanoma cells. 

I started playing with videos at that time, and spent countless hours doing live microscopy. Then a long hiatus came for my artsy side. I did not do a lot of microscopy during my postdoc years or afterward. 
Now that I am dedicated to teaching I have joyfully returned and let my creative side come out again. It is also much easier these days to create multimedia! 
So yes, it is exciting to be a little bit at the crossroads of art, science, and education, trying to be an artistic science educator :)