Whatever shape you imagined, it's probably brightly coloured, right? Well, that's the kind of false impression that scientific imagery can foster. So how do we know when a picture has been coloured for purely aesthetic reasons?

    It's an issue that artist Luke Jerram explores in his series Glass Microbiology. These glass model of viruses were designed as truer visualisations with help from virologists at Bristol University, and you can see his work – which includes recreations of the H1N1 （see image）, smallpox, e-coli, HIV and Sars viruses – at the Smithfield Gallery from September 21 to October 3.

    "The question of pseudo-colouring in biomedicine and its use for science communicative purposes, is a vast and complex subject," says Jerram. "Are there any colour conventions? What kind of presence do pseudo-coloured images have that naturally coloured specimens don't? And how does the choice of different colours affect their reception?"

    你可能以為病毒的形狀是千奇百怪的，顏色是五彩繽紛的，對不對？然而，這只是科學為我們培育的一種虛假印象。當一張圖片純因美學的原因而被涂以顏色，我們又如何得知其真實的情況呢？

    英國藝術家路加。杰蘭特將在他的系列《玻璃微生物學》中給我們解釋這一課題。杰蘭特在布里斯托爾大學病毒學家的幫助下，將這些病毒設計成更加直觀形象的玻璃雕塑，在他的作品中你可以看到包括創造出來的H1N1流感病毒、天花病毒、大腸埃希菌、艾滋病毒以及SARS病毒--這些你將在史密斯菲爾德畫廊（9月21日至10月3日）看到。

    杰蘭特說，"關于生物醫學虛假染色的問題以及其科學交流目的問題是一個龐大而復雜的主題。""有一些關于染色的規定慣例嗎？這些呈現出來的假顏色的形象沒有他們這是顏色的樣品嗎？選擇不同的顏色會形象他們的接受度嗎？"