A Light Touch
When Hopkins hopefuls were asked to plan an adventure, they
dreamed up all kinds of stories. When Hopkins
Magazine wanted to illustrate their essays
("Excellent Adventures"), Linda
Helton seemed perfect for the job. Her fanciful
illustrations — bright colors, collagelike
compositions, people floating in air — were an apt
match to the students' creativity. "The nature of this
particular story was that it was sort of light, and it had
a lot of variety in the different stories," Helton says.
"Part of the fun was to illustrate each one." Helton has
been a designer and illustrator since 1982, and her work
has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post
Magazine, Good Housekeeping, and Parenting.
Leaving with a Big Bang
Perhaps it's fitting that Michael Purdy is making his swan
song with a Swan Nebula. "Then There
Was Light," which offers glorious pictures of deep
space from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (including
the aforementioned nebula), will be his last article as
news and information officer for Johns Hopkins. Science
writing, he says, offers "so much opportunity for learning,
surprise, creativity, and sheer blissful wonder at this
amazing universe we live in." Purdy is departing Hopkins
for a position as senior medical writer for Washington
University's School of Medicine in his hometown, St.
Louis.