One of the challenges facing many scientists in lesser-known fields is communicating what they work on. A contest aims to advance scientific research — while demystifying it for the general public — through visualisations.
The National Science Foundation and the journal Science announced the winners of the 2011 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge on Friday. "These winners communicate science in a manner that not only captures your attention, but in many instances also strives to look at different ways to solve scientific problems through their varied art forms," said Monica Bradford, executive editor of Science, which is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
It's the ninth year that they've held the contest, attracting entries from 33 countries, and, for the first time, including a people's choice award through online voting. The categories were photography, illustration, informational posters and graphics, interactive games and videos.
With so much emerging-technology research done at the microscopic scale or in the cosmos, visualisations help show the beauty in science, and make the work of so many disciplines more accessible.
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(Credit: Bryan William Jones, University of Utah Moran Eye Center)
Metabolomic eye
First place in the 2011 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge in the photography category went to a detailed picture of the tissue from the eye of a mouse. University of Utah Moran Eye Center student Bryan William Jones used a technique called computational molecular phenotyping (CMP) to delineate the different types of cells from a tiny slice of a mouse's eye.
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(Credit: Robert Bellinveau )
Skin of an immature cucumber
Photographer Robert Bellinveau used a polarising microscope to get an 800-times magnification of trichomes, a defensive tip of young cucumbers. His work got an honourable mention in the photography category.
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(Credit: Babak Anasori, Michael Naguib, Yury Gogotsi and Michel W Barsoum, Drexel University)
The cliff of the two-dimensional world
It looks like the side of a mountain from Utah, but it's actually tiny layers of titanium-based compounds. The team of photographers was able to capture this level of detail, with each strip only five atoms thick, in two dimensions for the first time, according to the journal Science.
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(Credit: Emiko Paul and Quade Paul, Echo Medical Media; Ron Gamble, UAB Insight)
Tumour death-cell receptors on breast-cancer cell
This illustration depicts a dangerous-looking breast cancer. It was modelled in 3D software and painted in Photoshop. The green globs on the bottom left show a protein treatment that can shut down and kill cancer cells.
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(Credit: Joel Brehm, University of Nebraska, Lincoln)
Variable-diameter carbon nanotubes
Illustrator Joel Brehm created the perspective of being within an array of carbon nanotubes, which are too small to see with the naked eye. He drew from the work done at the University of Nebraska in making variable-diameter carbon nanotubes, which could be used for antennas or electronics.
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(Credit: Konstantin Poelke and Konrad Polthier, Free University of Berlin)
Exploring complex functions using domain colouring
This image is a visualisation of a maths problem. Each complex number in an equation is a colour, and the farther they are from zero (the white area), the brighter the picture. The idea is to show the differences between complex numbers.
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(Credit: Andrew Noske and Thomas Deerinck, The National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research; Horng Ou and Clodagh O'Shea, Salk Institute)
Separation of a cell
Cell division is taught early on in biology, but it's most often depicted in two dimensions. This illustration is an effort to create a more realistic three-dimensional image.
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(Credit: Foldit)
Gaming for science
Foldit is a computer game where people try to visually construct proteins that could be useful to medical research. Gamers, who don't need to be trained scientists, compete to make a protein from amino acids.
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(Credit: Laura Lynn Gonzalez, Green-Eye Visualization)
Powers of minus 10
Using a video game, students can delve into the biology under the skin. The students start at the skin on the hand and then enter a cell, then animated chromosomes and proteins. The developer hopes to refine the game so that students can visually see things at the atomic level, according to Science.
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(Credit: Ivan Konstantinov, Yury Stefanov, Alexander Kovalevsky and Anastasya Bakulina, Visual Science)
The Ebola virus
Certainly not the prettiest sight, but one that reflects the complexity of the Ebola virus, this 3D model, put together by Russian-based group Visual Science, reflects the complicated structure of the virus.
Via CNET
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