Jane Richardson drew this by hand and then colored it in back in 1981. It’s a protein molecule, or a diagram of how things move inside a protein molecule.
Here’s the description from the Wikimedia Commons page where I found it:
Ribbon schematic (hand drawn & colored, in 1981) of the 3D structure of the protein triose phosphate isomerase. The barrel of 8 beta-strands is shown by green arrows and the 8 alpha-helices as brown spirals. By Jane Richardson.
Drawn from coordinates in Protein Data Bank file 1TIM
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Triose phosphate isomerase is a chemical that can help our bodies convert sugars from one form to another. If you run low of it, you can get triose phosphate isomerase anemia and a weakness against all sorts of lung infections.
This colorful image came from Wikimedia Commons’ “Scientific Art” gallery, which for whatever reason I only discovered this week… after collecting science art on this website here since 2007.
Glad I found it. There’s fun stuff in there!