Science in itself is captivating and we love science as art, but these photos from the 2011 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge really drew us in.
Contest judges made their picks based on visual impact, originality and clarity. The winners, which include “people’s choice” awards as well as honorable mentions, were published online Feb. 2 in the journal Science. Here are some of our favorites via Wired Science:
Mouse Eyeball Cells (above)
Researchers stained ultra-thin slices of a mouse’s eye to create this first-place photography winner. The stain was made of three antibodies that bind to three different molecules present in all cells, but in differing concentrations.
Image: Bryan William Jones/University of Utah/Moran Eye CenterÂ
Breast Cancer Cells
In this illustration, breast cancer cells bear tentacle-like projections. An antibody designed to combat breast cancer, called TRA-8, floats in the foreground (green blobs). It earned an honourable mention.
Image:Â Emiko Paul/Quade Paul/Echo Medical Media/Ron Gamble/UAB InsightÂ
Cucumber Skin Barbs
Under 800X magnification, this honorable-mention-winning photograph shows toxin-filled barbs called trichomes on the skin of an immature cucumber. The trichomes bear sharp points to help protect the growing fruit from predators.
Image: Dr. Robert Rock Bellivea
We live and breath for the moments when science meets art. That’s why we’re totally captivated by PopSci’s Pretty Space Pics—a series of posts that brings us closer to the stars that otherwise seem so far away. Today we’re sharing some of our favorites.
“The Helix Nebula, captured in infrared light by the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope at Chile’s Paranal Observatory. The Helix Nebula is actually one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth, just 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius.”
“The Milky Way, viewed from the Cook Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean on a clear summer night. Snapped by skywatcher Tunc Tezel on the second largest Cook Island of Mangaia, the image was chosen as a winner of the National Maritime Museum’s Astrophotographer of the Year 2011 contest.”
“A whirling image of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope and the stars above it circling the southern celestial pole. It’s less a space pic than an Earth pic depicting really cool space searching technology.”
“Cassini proves once again that it’s the spacecraft that just keeps on giving. That’s fine with us, since it keeps sending back pics like these from its wide orbit around arguably the solar system’s second-coolest planet. Represented here: Saturn’s signature rings and five of its more than 60 natural satellites.”
The sky has always been mystifying, and with so many monumental discoveries on the horizon it’s impossible not to marvel at the universe’s vastness. We can’t wait to see which Pretty Space Pics turn up next!
Photos: Helix Nebula: ESO/VISTA/J. Emerson; The Milky Way: Tunc Tezel; Very Large Telescope: F. Char/ESO via SPACE; Saturn: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.
If you’ve already ordered your DNA 11 Gift Kit but still need something for the science-lover in your life, look no further! We’ve curated a few must-haves of the season, celebrating everything from molecules to DNA, sterling-silver to jellyfish.
Steampunk Rock Star Scientist Poster Art Prints (above)
If you’re like us, everyday is a celebration of Watson and Crick, the duo who together proposed the double helix/spiral staircase structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. Now you can pay tribute to your favourite scientists in style with these Steampunk Rock Star Scientist Prints.
Intro to Molecular Bonding T-Shirt
If you put six H’s, two C’s and one big O in a room together, what would happen? Consult Figure 1: Alcohol at a Party. Available as both men’s and women’s tees, it’s a perfect gift for those scientific party animals.
Biochemies DNA Plush Toys
These DNA plush toys magnetically interact where they hydrogen bond! These little guys aren’t available for purchase yet, but you can back the project on Kickstarter for first dibs on a set of your own when they’re released in March 2012. These happy bases would make great desk toys, educational tools, or gifts for current and aspiring scientists.
Molecular Cuisine Starter Kit
This culinary kit is more like chemistry set, containing sachets of agar-agar, calcium lactate, sodium alginate, soy lecithin and xanthan gum to help aspiring molecular chefs experiment at home. The kit also includes an arsenal of tools like a syringe and silicone tubing, plus a DVD of 50+ recipes for molecular implosion.
via Wired
Desktop Jellyfish Tank
Because regular aquariums just don’t cut it anymore! This kit includes all the essential tools to get started, from the 7 gallon tank, air pump and feeding tube, to a voucher for moon jellyfish delivery (they’re guaranteed to arrive alive!).  It’s the first affordable aquarium designed specifically for jellyfish and it’s as easy to maintain as a regular fish tank (which jellyfish can’t live in because they get sucked into the air filtration system). Available for pre-order.
via Kickstarter
Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed
Body art meets popular science in this mind-blowing collection of science-inspired tattoos. Written by renowned science writer Carl Zimmer, each tattoo provides a leaping-off point for reflection on the science in question—whether it’s the importance of an image of Darwin’s finches or the significance of the uranium atom inked into the chest of a young radiologist.
DNA bases charm bracelet
Charm her with a DNA bracelet! This sterling-silver bracelet was created to honour Rosalind Franklin, who’s x-ray crystallography work was critical in Watson and Crick’s determination of the double helix structure of DNA. The bracelet features charms of the four bases found in DNA: A, C, G, and T.
Photos from Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed via Popular Science
Carl Zimmer—the bona fide curator of science-based body art—recently released his book Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed, a mind-blowing collection of tattoos that pay homage to everything from Darwin’s finches to neural nets, and of course DNA.
Popular Science’s article Science Ink: A Taxonomy of Tattoos Inspired by Science features a jaw-dropping gallery of the book’s body art:
The science obsessed—or at least those enthusiastic enough to etch their favorite equations, diagrams, schematics, and formulas directly onto their dermises—show off their needlework in a coffee table-worthy collection of pics, arranged by Zimmer into categories centered on major scientific disciplines: math, chemistry, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, astronomy, and a dedicated chapter on DNA.
We can’t wait to get our hands on this book and explore the personal connections between science buffs and their inspired tattoos.
Right now, some of the most amazing innovators and thinkers are gathered in San Diego for a medical conference like no other. TEDMED brings together an extraordinary and diverse group of leaders in one place where theoretical ideas are thrown it into the reality of tomorrow’s technologies. This year it’s being held at the Hotel Del Coronado, on Coronado Island from October 25th – 28th.
It was a natural fit for DNA 11 to be there, especially with their speaker line up boasting huge names like Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple) and Lance Armstrong. Then, leaders in the genetic sciences field such as Ashley Dombkowski (Chief Business Officer, 23andme) and Eric Schadt (Director, Institute of Genomics, Mount Sinai Medical School).
DNA 11 is so thrilled to be doing an 18′ x 24′ DNA portrait for every speaker. Also, a $100 DNA 11 gift card will be given to each of the 1000 conference attendees.
Follow along with conference updates on twitter @tedmed or hash tag #tedmed. We will be!
DNA 11 has partnered up with the creative community at COLOURlovers in an effort to expand our current color palette choices. Get creative, get inspired and get going!
Starting today, the COLOURlovers members will be able to create their own original DNA portrait color combinations online. The community will choose ten finalists who will then square off to see which five will be chosen to become a permanent part of the DNA 11 collection.
“Each one of our current 25 color combinations was chosen with a specific look in mind. Every color in a DNA Portrait must work well together,” said Melissa Edwards, lead designer. “That’s the kind of attention to detail we’re looking for in this contest.”
The contest will be open and accept entries for the first phase from Thursday, October 20th through Thursday, October 27th, 2011.
1st Place: Your very own, palette-customized, 24 x 36” DNA Portrait, plus we add your winning palette to our line of color options for personalized DNA art.
Runners Up (4): A $250 DNA 11 Gift Certificate and your palette will also be added to the DNA 11 color collection.
To enter and for full contest details, visit:
http://www.colourlovers.com/business/blog/2011/10/20/dna11-colourlovers-palette-contest-color-your-dna
It’s no secret that we think science is about as cool as it gets but it is always heartening to see the idea get a little boost from Hollywood.
Last week on ABC there was an awesome special called i.am.FIRST — Science is Rock and Roll which took an inside look at the 20th Annual FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship, a worldwide science and robotics K-12 competition.
The special also included many celebrities singing the praises (literally and figuratively) of science, technology and math including Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg, Josh Duhamel, Miley Cyrus, Jack Black, Justin Bieber, Bono and the  Black Eyed Peas.
As much as we all want to grow up to be rock stars and movie gods, it is science after all that makes most everything in our world possible.
The iamFirst Campaign, hosted on Facebook, helps encourage kids to study science, technology, math and engineering in order to become the people that change our future.
The video above, called My Robot is Better Than Your Robot gives a nice overview of the program. You can also watch the entire program on YouTube.
Is there music in your blood? Well if you listen close enough there might be.
Recently I came across a really cool project by Brooklyn resident Greg Lukianoff called the Genetic Music Project.
The Genetic Music Project takes the A’s, G’s, C’s and T’s of your genetic makeup and converts them into musical notes to create a unique song from your DNA.
The basic premise involves taking small snippets of genetic code and assigning each nucleotide a musical note to create interesting little songs.
Because genetic sequences are so huge, the songs created so far are all based on small sections of genetic code, called genetic markers, that represent certain genetic traits or disorders such as Baldness, Schizophrenia and Alcohol Dependence.
The one that speaks to me the most is my nighttime nemesis — Restless Leg Syndrome.
Check them out at www.geneticmusicproject.com
I came across this very cool Movie Bar Code art on Twitter, the above image is the movie Inception, with a twist.
Unfortunately there is no indication who the artist is but what they do it take all the frames of a particular movie and compress them into one big print that acts as a kind of film DNA.
What I found most interesting was comparing the various films to see which ones had the most color, there’s a lot of black and brown in movies apparently. Not surprisingly Bambi was one of the most colorful while The Matrix is notable for how you can pick out the scenes where they are in the system (The Wachowski brothers used a green filter on scenes where the characters are in the artificial world of The Matrix).
This particular Tumblr blog was only started in February so keep checking back to see which films they feature next.
What could be more scientific (and fun!) than blowing things up? London artist Alexandre Farto takes the science of explosions to the next level by creating some amazing precision explosive wall murals.
Boom goes the dynamite – murals made with precision explosives via Hack a Day
[Alexandre Farto] is known for some off the wall art displays, but his newest work takes the phrase literally. Using precisely placed explosive charges, he has been sculpting portraits and other murals on walls in various places around London.
The detail at which he is able to produce these images is incredible, considering he is blowing chunks of plaster and brick from walls to form them. We can only guess as to how much preparation time is required to finish even one of these images, let alone to amass the stunning portfolio he has put together.
The embedded video above is a collaboration between Farto and musician Orelha Negra and proves that science can be both fun and beautiful. Check out more of Farto’s work at www.alexandrefarto.com.
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