science nsf visualization art illustration 3D

A VIDEO

This still depiction of a mouse pancreatic cell shows thousands of irregularly shaped organelles huddling around a central and bean-shaped nucleus. Later in the video, researchers simplify the cell’s components and sort them by organelle, grouping together the mitochondria (green) and insulin granules (blue), then clumping these and other organelles together to form uniform columns and rows for easy comparison and understanding.

Credit: Graham T. Johnson, The Scripps Research Institute and grahamj.com; Andrew Noske, National Center for Microscopy & Imaging Research; Bradley Marsh, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland


These are stills from a video that won First Place and the People’s Choice award last year, in the 2011 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.


Public voting for this year’s Int’l SciVis Challenge has been extended to Mon 11/12. Check out these wonderful science visualizations and vote for your favorites!

science chemistry materials engineering NSF

A PHOTO

Material jam: Collections of grains, rafts of bubbles and glassy substances are examples of jammed materials. The hallmark of jammed materials is that they resist applied forces like a solid, but are disordered like liquids. Understanding how these materials transition between solid-like and liquid-like states has been a key focus for the soft condensed matter research community. Much of the jamming research effort has centered on compaction: Higher density leads to a solid state. However, in this NSF-supported project, researchers showed that jamming also occurs from shearing. Learn more…

Image Credit:Robert P. Behringer, Duke University

science weather oceanography NSF

A PHOTO

Hurricanes on a Global Scale: Scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have developed a robust statistical method to use Argo sensor data to study hurricane effects on the ocean. Based on this new method, the dominant way the ocean responds to a hurricane may differ depending on the storm’s strength. This study provides a new way to utilize an existing global autonomous sensor network—the Argo array—to study the large-scale impact of hurricanes on the ocean. This tool may be used in the future to understand how extreme tropical storms influence the ocean structure, circulation and global climate. Read more…

Image Credit: Advanced Visualization Laboratory, National Center for Supercomputing Applications

science oceanography NSF

A PHOTO

Ocean vent give clues to undersea biosphere: A novel technique developed at the University of Georgia allows researchers to remotely monitor plume dynamics of hydrothermal vents on the sea floor. Acoustical scintillation analysis (ASA) enables specific studies of vent flow rates. Studies using ASA have shown that the upward velocity of a vent plume depends on the tidally driven ocean currents. Originally developed to quantify discharge from the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill, ASA will now help oceanographers study the strange and intriguing biosphere created in and around hydrothermal vents. Here, you see a high temperature hydrothermal vent. Image Credit: WHOI

science polar biology ecology NSF

A VIDEO

The Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research is located to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula, extending south and north of the Palmer Basin from onshore to several hundred miles offshore. Research focuses on the Antarctic coastal and open-ocean marine ecosystems, nesting sites of sea birds and regional oceanography along the Western Antarctic Peninsula. A primary research objective is to understand this marine ecosystem’s natural variability to define long- and short-period natural cycles as well as the changes brought about by human activities. Read more about this NSF-funded asset.

Images:

  1. Weddell Seal at Palmer LTER site; (Donna Patterson/Palmer LTER)
  2. Chinstrap on nest (Donna Patterson/Palmer LTER)
  3. Adelie penguins near the Palmer Station LTER site in Antarctica; their numbers have declined. (Zena Cardman)
  4. Adélies Torgersen Island (Beth Simmons/Palmer LTER) 

nanoscience chemistry science nsf

A PHOTO

Researchers have developed a way of making very small silver structures that have the look and texture of flowers. These structures are nano-sized particles—roughly 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Because of their small size and unusual shape, the silver particles are expected to have optical properties that may lead to new, cheaper and portable chemical and biological detectors. Read more…

Image Credit: Dhiraj Sardar, University of Texas at San Antonio

science nsf astronomy engineering

A PHOTO

Super sensors for astronomy: An NSF-funded technology development program has produced a new generation of 16 megapixel infrared sensors for astronomy applications. Both large silicon readout chips—2.5 inches square—and matching high-quality, infrared-sensitive semiconductor crystals were fabricated. Much of astronomy is now carried out at infrared wavelengths invisible to the eye. Traditional silicon digital camera sensors are blind to infrared light and need a detector crystal to add infrared “color” sensitivity. Almost all infrared instruments will benefit enormously from the sensitive, large-size devices developed under this research program.

Image Credit: G. Luppino, GL Scientific

science astronomy polar nsf

A PHOTO

South Pole Telescope reveals early cosmic radiation: Researchers are using the NSF-funded, 10-meter South Pole Telescope (SPT) to make the most precise measurement yet of the primordial radiation known as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The researchers have extracted important information on the dynamics of the early universe by measuring the small-scale structure in the CMB. When combined with complementary measurements of the CMB from NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe satellite, the new SPT measurements give strong evidence that inflation—a period of extremely rapid expansion following the Big Bang—did occur. The new data from SPT also hints at a deficit of structure in the CMB on small scales. If this trend is borne out by future work, it could be explained by the existence of previously unknown particles, a scenario that would have profound implications for the broader field of physics. Read more…

Image: Daniel Luong-Van, NSF

art contests science nsf

A VIDEO

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the journal Science created the International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge to celebrate the grand tradition of science visualization and to encourage its continued growth. The spirit of the competition is to communicate science, engineering and technology for education and journalistic purposes. This year’s deadline is fast approaching! The deadline for all entries is 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on Sept. 28, 2012.

Above are last year’s winners in the photography category, descriptions below.

  1. Metabolomic Eye
    Bryan William Jones, Moran Eye Center, The University of Utah

    This beautiful set of concentric rings and shapes is actually a metabolic look at the wide diversity of cells in the eye of a mouse. In all, 70 different types of cells are depicted, from muscles to retina, each colored a unique shade. Muscle cells, located at the left edge of the image, look pale yellow, whereas scleral tissue, surrounding the entire orb, shows up green.

  2. Microscopic Image of Trichomes on the Skin of an Immature Cucumber
    Robert Rock Belliveau

    For this close-up, vibrant shot of a young cucumber, the photographer used a polarizing microscope. Unlike microscopes that use normal, unpolarized light, these microscopes record the refraction of light as it passes through small objects producing sharp, colorful images. The structures, shown here at 800× magnification, are trichomes. They coat the surface of growing cucumbers and look, to the naked eye, like a thin film of fuzzy hair. The tips of trichomes taper to a point that can pierce the mouths of predators and their bulbous bases are filled with bitter-tasting and toxic molecules called cucurbitacins.

  3. The Cliff of the Two-Dimensional World
    Babak Anasori, Michael Naguib, Yury Gogotsi, Michel W. Barsoum, Drexel University

    This landscape, which looks like a red-rock bluff straight out of Utah, isn’t a geologic feature. Instead, it’s a nanostructured material made from ultrathin layers of titanium-based compounds, as seen under an electron microscope. These exfoliated layers, which Babak Anasori and colleagues at Drexel University in Philadelphia dubbed MXenes, are so thin they are two-dimensional. In other words, each strip is only five atomic layers thick. The team is the first to render such materials in 2-D. The MXenes could be used in energy storage devices, sensors, solar cells and other applications, the team writes. And they could give the majesty of Arches National Park in Utah some nanoscale competition.

To go directly to the online entry form, click here.

science biology nsf energy

A VIDEO

From single cell to complete plant in seven days: Researchers have developed a technique to generate a plant from a single cell in just one week. By removing certain proteins from the cell, they determined how these proteins contribute to cell growth. These studies may provide novel avenues to manipulate biofuel crops, thereby helping to provide innovative renewable energy sources. 

Credit:Magdalena Bezanilla, University of Massachusetts Amherst

biology science nsf

A PHOTO

Light-Harvesting Antennae Direct Photosynthesis in Bacteria: Scientists have uncovered how a control system produces the important light-harvesting antennae that power photosynthesis in cyanobacteria. These microorganisms are responsible for nearly half of the Earth’s oxygen production. Understanding the mechanisms involved in the production of light-harvesting antennae in cyanobacteria could help increase agricultural yields, make biosolar energy production more feasible, and improve the understanding of a globally important biological process that is vital for providing the energy needed to sustain life. Read more…

Credit: Richard Alvey and David Kehoe

science nsf ecology biology

A VIDEO

The Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research Program was established in 2000 in south Florida, where a rapidly growing population of over 6 million people lives close to the Florida Everglades. Program research focuses on an area where freshwater and estuarine vegetation mix, known as the oligohaline ecotone. Researchers study how hydrology, climate and human activities affect ecosystem and population dynamics in the ecotone and more broadly, the Florida Coastal Everglades. Here, you see an American alligator swimming in the Shark River estuary and sunrise at Tarpon Bay.

Image credits: 1) Garrett Miller FCE LTER 2) Jennifer Rehage FCE LTER
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