{"id":1511,"date":"2017-07-26T11:10:42","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T11:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/?p=1511"},"modified":"2024-01-11T15:13:04","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T15:13:04","slug":"in-focus-3d-pollen-prints-not-to-be-sniffed-at-printing-pollen-for-the-met-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/bioimaging\/in-focus-3d-pollen-prints-not-to-be-sniffed-at-printing-pollen-for-the-met-office\/","title":{"rendered":"IN FOCUS: 3D Pollen Prints Not To Be Sniffed At: Printing Pollen for the Met Office."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Above<\/em>: \u00a0Not to be sneezed at: 3D pollen prints for the Met Office (grass, green<\/em>; oak, yellow<\/em> and birch, blue<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: If you suffer from hayfever then please avoid spending too long on this page – it may be detrimental to your health!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I bet you didn’t know\u00a0that<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>one in five people \u00a0suffer from hayfever and that 95% of pollen sufferers are allergic to grass pollen in the UK alone? Well neither did I until I visited the Met Office’s <\/span>pollen forecast website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems that s<\/span>ome of the worst offenders are pollen grains from grass, oak and birch which play havoc with the mucous membranes during the pollen season, causing sneezing, nasal congestion, itchy eyes and triggering asthma in susceptible individuals (a<\/span>nd to make matters worse, \u00a0these conditions are exacerbated \u00a0by drinking alcohol – so no respite there!)<\/span><\/p>\n

H<\/span>aving read some of our previous blogs (here<\/a> and here<\/a>),\u00a0<\/span>the Met Office\u00a0<\/span>recently asked the Bioimaging Hub if we would generate<\/span>\u00a03D printed models of some of the worse culprits \u00a0(shown above) for their outreach & engagement programme t<\/span>o help promote awareness of hayfever.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The 3D prints were generated from surface-rendered confocal microscope volume datasets with help from BIOSI 3D printing. We’ve used the technique to generate physical models of a variety of microscopic samples ranging in size from subcellular organelles to whole developmental organisms. If you’re interested, then further details of the methodology are available below.<\/span><\/p>\n

AJH<\/span><\/p>\n

Further reading:<\/p>\n