Observation is key to the work of both artists and scientists. Illustration has been an essential part of scientific research for centuries and the images have often been admired for their aesthetic as well as informative qualities. Not surprisingly, the beauty of biology has also captured the imagination of artists, some of whom borrow scientific techniques as an aid to observation.

Artist Mark Fairnington uses high-definition electron microscopes to photograph insect specimens before he begins to paint them. This enables him to capture on huge canvases minute details of the original, but with subtle manipulations.

Examples of his work, like the mantid depicted here, are on show in Fabulous Beasts, an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London until September 2004. The exhibition also features the work of another artist, Giles Revell, who uses electron microscopy to reproduce majestic monochrome images of common insects. The works of both artists are juxtaposed with specimens from the museum's own vast entomological collection, and a rare glimpse of the first edition of Robert Hooke's Micrographia.