title: [The human in the art: Henrik Have's painting for a medical thesis].
abstract: A painting made by the Danish painter and author Henrik Have (born 1946) illustrates the front page of Jette E. Kristiansen's medical thesis The Antimicrobial Activity of Psychotherapeutic Drugs and Stereo-isomeric Analogues (1990). The painting illustrates beautifully that art and science can go hand in hand. Even very complicated chemical, pharmacological and microbiological questions can be expressed by means of colours and by means of symbols used in everyday life, such as a spiral (DNA), or a pair of hands expressing working together. Prayers, wishes and the most difficult questions in receptor stereo-chemistry in eucaryotic and procaryotic cell-systems are illustrated in this painting. Synthetic chemistry and pharmacology are linked in the development of the synthetic dyes. The chemical colours are often the same in dyes and drugs. The red colour in the pharmacology is associated with the antibiotic drugs as sulfonamides as well as with the staining of Gram-negative bacteria. The yellow colour is associated with the antibiotic drugs, quinolones and the Ziehl-Neelsen staining for tubercle bacillii. The blue colour is associated with the psychoactive drugs, phenotiazines, as well as with methylenblue staining and the staining of Gram-positive bacteria. These association and symbols have been used in this painting.
authors.forename: Jette E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Kristiansen
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Permin
mesh_terms: D004212:Academic Dissertations as Topic / Q000266:history*; D003718:Denmark; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D008512:Medicine in the Arts; D010151:Paintings / Q000266:history; D013811:Psychotherapeutic Processes; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000266:history*
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs