Bronchioles with Alveoli in Glass

This is a conceptual ‘beauty shot’ representing the lower respiratory ‘tree’, the trachea, bronchioles and alveoli of the lungs. The image was first sculpted digitally in 3D, then Audra carefully designed the material qualities of color, reflection, refraction, transparency and lighting to give the final structure the delicate beauty of blown glass. The final step was to arrange this glass sculpture in a dramatic and original composition.

In reality, the mean number of alveoli in human lungs is approx. 480,000,000 or 170 alveoli per cubic mm! This is obviously not something that can be represented in a 3D model or illustration. Medical artists often use conventions that are understood by the medical profession to be vast simplifications but that still reveal essential concepts of science.

Audra’s biomedical art ranges in style from idealized and conceptual, exemplified by this image, to high science explaining mode of disease (MOD) and mode of action (MOA) on molecular and cellular levels, to detailed, hyper-realistic depictions of anatomy and pathology.