Turner’s research on hyaluronic acid fragments has resulted in the discovery of a self-assembling hierarchical molecule, which is a scaffold for animal and plant tissue matrices.

The spontaneous patterns, which mimic those found in nature, are formed when aqueous solutions of this polymer are dehydrated on glass surfaces. The art is obtained by photographing the images using scanning electron microscopy or optical microscopy.

The beauty of this scientific art-form is that a wide variety of structures and images have been obtained. “I call the art ‘biomatrixgenesis’ because I believe that my simple carbohydrate polymer is the natural scaffold for mammalian tissue genesis,” explains Turner.

After earning his Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry at (now) NYU Poly and after a postdoctoral at Harvard University School of Public Health, Turner spent several years as a research scientist in the Army Reserve.