Skip to main content

Exploring the invisible – Microbes as masters of disguise

By September 26, 2023September 27th, 2024Exhibition

The Vienna Museum of Science and Technology reached out to me to create a series of scientifically faithful 3D-printed viruses for an exhibition on “exploring the invisible”.

Over the last 10 years I have been fascinated by creating illustrations of various viruses. Unfortunately, many of the common images of viruses – the spiky-ball type – do not resemble their actual structure at all. So I was delighted to learn about this exhibition and contribute to “visualize the invisible”. I provided the virus models which were then printed on location in Vienna. The seven viruses included in the exhibition are Coronavirus (Sars-CoV-2),  FSME, HCV, HIV, HPV, Influenza and Smallpox. For more info see the museum’s website.

And if you are wondering about the visualization process, I have explained the main steps on the example of the human papillomavirus 16 (HPV 16) below: