The art and science of animating life

Animator Drew Berry explains how he brings the molecules of life to life

Yesterday I was trying to figure out why it seems to be so difficult to connect to the biological molecules that we are made of - proteins, DNA and such like. My piece might have ended on a frustrated note but I have no wish to be negative, especially since the problem has only arisen because animators like Drew Berry are now able to use the results of structural biology to make quite exquisite movies of the molecules of life at work inside the cells of our bodies. As I was working though my difficulties, I wrote to ask Berry how he approached the task of representing molecular complexity in ways that would make sense to people. This is his considered and insightful reply:

"The goal of my work is to show non-experts - the general public aged 4 to 99, students of biology, journalists and politicians, and so on - what is being discovered in biology, in a format that is accessible, meaningful, and engaging. I hope that my work provides some sense of what biologists and medical researchers are discovering and thinking about, to provide the public with a framework of understanding to discuss these important new discoveries and the impact it will have on us as a society as we head into the future.