Metabolic
Metabolic
The inspiration for this piece was the Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging technique of the entire human body. The PET scan is a beautiful and powerful result of our understanding of atomic and subatomic physics. The dramatic and colorful 3D images of the human body results from unstable radioactive nuclides tracing metabolic processes. In a PET image the light comes from within the body as positrons and electron annihilate and emit gamma rays. The artwork portrays a full body PET as a collage of images from medical imaging research, with painting, sketching, and writing of symbols, figures, text. It shows the unstable radioactive fluorodeoxyglucose F18 nuclide attached to a glucose molecule and the atomic transitions that results in the emission of a positron. The image also includes a schematic of the workings of the PET camera detecting the gamma rays released when positrons and electrons interact/annihilate.
The inspiration for this piece was the Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging technique of the entire human body. The PET scan is a beautiful and powerful result of our understanding of atomic and subatomic physics. The dramatic and colorful 3D images of the human body results from unstable radioactive nuclides tracing metabolic processes. In a PET image the light comes from within the body as positrons and electron annihilate and emit gamma rays. The artwork portrays a full body PET as a collage of images from medical imaging research, with painting, sketching, and writing of symbols, figures, text. It shows the unstable radioactive fluorodeoxyglucose F18 nuclide attached to a glucose molecule and the atomic transitions that results in the emission of a positron. The image also includes a schematic of the workings of the PET camera detecting the gamma rays released when positrons and electrons interact/annihilate.