Some of science’s most powerful statements are not made in words. From the diagrams of DaVinci to Rosalind Franklin’s X-rays, visualization of research has a long and literally illustrious history. To illustrate is to enlighten.
So says the National Science Foundation in its introduction to the International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. Each February, the NSF and Science host a competition to pick the best photographs, illustrations, and visualizations of the past year’s science and engineering research. And this round’s winners are enlightening indeed: from a microscopic photo of a hairy tomato seed to a colorful map of the mustard plant’s genes, these images show us how wild and weird scientific research can be.
Check out the winners of this year’s competition here:
And here’s a video of interviews with this year’s winners, talking about the science behind the images:
