One of Spike Walker’s images on the book cover is of the moment before a human IVF. It won a 2009 Wellcome Image Award.
The Wellcome judges found it very powerful. “I think it’s an image that possibly all the judges had seen before – but the clarity of the image was what impressed me,” says James Cutmore. “You can see all the processes that are going on in the image, and the colours are also very beautiful.”
Catherine Draycott agrees: “One of the things that makes this image so strong is the colour. Many images like this that are light micrograph images are just pale shades of blue and grey, with a little bit of iridescence possibly around the edge of the egg cell. But this one is so incredibly vivid.”
Note that it was a failed IVF so you’re not seeing the moment before a person’s life began . . .