Visualizations of Science

Presented in this post are several examples of winners of the 2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.

The awards are given to the best photographs, illustrations and interactive media that visualize science and technology.

The full gallery can be seen here.

The image on the right won the "illustration" category. It shows the key components of the human circulatory system at 10 different magnifications. Click on the image to see the full size.

Below is "The Glass Forest," winner of the photography prize, which depicts a community of microscopic diatoms - unicellular algae with a peculiar glass-like cell wall - attached to a marine invertebrate (Eudendrium racemosum). The image was captured with a scanning electron microscope.



Next is "Squid Suckers: The Little Monsters That Feed the Beast," which was awarded an Honorable Mention in Photography. It is a false-color microscope image of the suction cups on the arm of the Loligo pealei squid. The 400 micrometer suckers have chitin "fangs."



Next is an extract from "Stream Micro-Ecology: Life in a Biofilm," a large poster explaining the ecology of microbial biofilms. It was awarded an Honorable Mention in Informational Graphics. Better known as slime, these complex communities of many different micro-organisms are found in many watery environments and thought to be crucial to aquatic ecology. The poster shows the main organisms found in a biofilm from a stream, and explains their interactions and ecological roles.



Original article here.