Beaded Viruses

Posted on January 29, 2009 | Filed Under Colleagues' Work

 

Holly Wichman Beaded Virus Model

I subscribe to Beads-List, a listserve with beads and beadwork as its focus.
A few months back, I received a posting about the beaded virus models being created by scientist Dr. Holly A. Wichman, a Professor of Biology at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho.  

I knew nothing of virus structures, let alone that they could be modeled in beads….or that such potentially deadly organisms could be rendered so beautifully.  In her scientific research, Dr. Wichman studies the Microviridiae family of viruses.   A few years ago she took up beading, and at a certain point she realized that she could model some of the viruses in beads.  A Microviridiae virus inspired her to make the model in the photo above, which measures about 3 1/2″ in diameter.

Some of Dr. Wichman’s beaded virus models were exhibited from June to September, 2008 in the “Crystal Structures: Viruses in Glass” show at the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Gallery in Washington, DC.

Also on display were beaded virus models made Dr. Bentley Fane, a Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Arizona who took up beading after spending some time in Dr. Wichman’s lab.   Some of his beaded virus models are shown below.

Beaded Virus Models by Dr. Bentley Fane

Dr. Wichman and Dr. Fane discovered that some of the beaded virus models they were making were inherently stable—meaning they were hard to crush with the pressure of a hand—and others were inherently unstable—they could be crushed easily.   This led Drs. Wichman and Fane to question whether evolutionary forces tend to select against the unstable structures over time…..a question they might not have thought of, had they not been working with beaded models. 

All of this reminds me of the work of my colleague Laura Shea of Parker, Colorado, who has been bridging the fields of beadwork and geometry for a number of years now, by selecting various polyhedra and then setting out to render them in beads….with often amazing results.

Eureka Bead by Laura Shea

And I am also reminded of the work of the various mainland Chinese beadworkers, past and present, who have been creating 3-dimensional structures out of beads for at least a couple of centuries.

To see more of the beaded virus models created by Dr. Wichman and Dr. Fane, visit http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/biology/labs/wichman/reflections/

and also http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2008/0613art_exhibit.shtml.

To see Laura’s website, visit  http://www.adancingrainbow.com/.

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