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CNN Live At Daybreak
New Book Documents Development of Fetus from Conception to Birth Using Computer Generated Images
Aired December 02, 2002 - 05:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You know, these days most women who are expecting have come to expect sonograms of their unborn child. But there's a new book out that makes sonograms look like murky mystery images.
Our Jeanne Moos reports on the latest fetal attraction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They may not look like the baby pictures you carry around in your wallet, but you can bet Alexander Tsiaras' wallet will be fatter thanks to images like these.
(on camera): I'm not supposed to call them photographs.
ALEXANDER TSIARAS: No.
MOOS: What am I supposed to call them?
TSIARAS: They're visualizations.
MOOS (voice-over): A little too visual for TV, at least the ones depicting birth. His images have been plastered on the pages of "Time," extolled on "Oprah."
OPRAH WINFREY: We can see extraordinary, detail of what is really going on inside the womb.
MOOS: And exiting it. Cirias has an exhibit called "Birth Visualizations" at New York's Rico Maresca Art Gallery. Co-owner Frank Maresca (ph).
FRANK MARESCA: I've spent most of my adult life trying to prevent that which you see on the walls here.
MOOS: But within the walls of the uterus is where Tsiaras' work shines. His $50 book, "From Conception To Birth," is filled with spooky images. For instance, an egg surrounded by rejected sperm, with the caption, "Only One Succeeds."
TSIARAS: I refer to it as the fallopian tubes singles bar because, you know, all these sperm are like chumps on the outside.
MOOS: At times, the fetus looks like a miniature rhino. Even earlier it looks like a seahorse with a zipper up its spine.
TSIARAS: They will become the vertebrae and the muscle.
MOOS: Within a month, half of the embryo is brain and heart. As the book says, life unfolds in less time than it takes to grow a head of lettuce. Things don't end up where they start. This is an ear.
TSIARAS: And basically your head's like a continental shift, it starts all over the place and just sort of migrates into the right place.
MOOS: These aren't photos, they're computer manipulated, colorized images based on data from scans such as MRIs. At 32 days, the baby to be is barely the size of a pea, as illustrated by Oprah.
WINFREY: OK, we lost the pea.
MOOS (on camera): Are you a father?
TSIARAS: Yes. My son's going to be here any minute.
MOOS (voice-over): As it turned out, Andres was conceived as dad was working on "Conception To Birth."
TSIARAS: Here he is.
MOOS: Tsiaras' company is called Anatomical Travelogue and owes a lot to this man. Paul Jernigen (ph) was a Texas murderer put to death by lethal injection. He donated his body to science.
TSIARAS: They proceeded to slice him in one millimeter slices.
MOOS: Jernigen became the best data set of human anatomy ever, and when Tsiaras had to lecture before scientists who work with the data, he brought along a surprise.
TSIARAS: And you just sometimes can't take a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) too seriously.
MOOS: And on that note...
(on camera): But here's the good part, watch this. See, you can put the baby back.
(voice-over): Coming to a bookstore near you, the creature from the womb.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Birth Using Computer Generated Images>
Aired December 2, 2002 - 05:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You know, these days most women who are expecting have come to expect sonograms of their unborn child. But there's a new book out that makes sonograms look like murky mystery images.
Our Jeanne Moos reports on the latest fetal attraction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They may not look like the baby pictures you carry around in your wallet, but you can bet Alexander Tsiaras' wallet will be fatter thanks to images like these.
(on camera): I'm not supposed to call them photographs.
ALEXANDER TSIARAS: No.
MOOS: What am I supposed to call them?
TSIARAS: They're visualizations.
MOOS (voice-over): A little too visual for TV, at least the ones depicting birth. His images have been plastered on the pages of "Time," extolled on "Oprah."
OPRAH WINFREY: We can see extraordinary, detail of what is really going on inside the womb.
MOOS: And exiting it. Cirias has an exhibit called "Birth Visualizations" at New York's Rico Maresca Art Gallery. Co-owner Frank Maresca (ph).
FRANK MARESCA: I've spent most of my adult life trying to prevent that which you see on the walls here.
MOOS: But within the walls of the uterus is where Tsiaras' work shines. His $50 book, "From Conception To Birth," is filled with spooky images. For instance, an egg surrounded by rejected sperm, with the caption, "Only One Succeeds."
TSIARAS: I refer to it as the fallopian tubes singles bar because, you know, all these sperm are like chumps on the outside.
MOOS: At times, the fetus looks like a miniature rhino. Even earlier it looks like a seahorse with a zipper up its spine.
TSIARAS: They will become the vertebrae and the muscle.
MOOS: Within a month, half of the embryo is brain and heart. As the book says, life unfolds in less time than it takes to grow a head of lettuce. Things don't end up where they start. This is an ear.
TSIARAS: And basically your head's like a continental shift, it starts all over the place and just sort of migrates into the right place.
MOOS: These aren't photos, they're computer manipulated, colorized images based on data from scans such as MRIs. At 32 days, the baby to be is barely the size of a pea, as illustrated by Oprah.
WINFREY: OK, we lost the pea.
MOOS (on camera): Are you a father?
TSIARAS: Yes. My son's going to be here any minute.
MOOS (voice-over): As it turned out, Andres was conceived as dad was working on "Conception To Birth."
TSIARAS: Here he is.
MOOS: Tsiaras' company is called Anatomical Travelogue and owes a lot to this man. Paul Jernigen (ph) was a Texas murderer put to death by lethal injection. He donated his body to science.
TSIARAS: They proceeded to slice him in one millimeter slices.
MOOS: Jernigen became the best data set of human anatomy ever, and when Tsiaras had to lecture before scientists who work with the data, he brought along a surprise.
TSIARAS: And you just sometimes can't take a (UNINTELLIGIBLE) too seriously.
MOOS: And on that note...
(on camera): But here's the good part, watch this. See, you can put the baby back.
(voice-over): Coming to a bookstore near you, the creature from the womb.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Birth Using Computer Generated Images>
