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DaVinci, a Cockroach, and some Computer Generated Graphics Walk into a Bar...

By bcohen on October 1, 2006.

For reasons of postal error, I now receive Science every week. Every. Single. Week. Who knew? I have a hard enough time keeping up with the New Yorker's weekly pattern, and now this. These people, you people, just keep doing science. (Incidentally, then, Jonathan Cohen of Virginia Tech -- I am neither Jonathan nor at Virginia Tech (anymore) -- I've got your Science magazines if you're looking for them.)

A few weeks ago AAAS printed the results to their "Visualization Challenge 2006." The images are stunning. I can't even imagine which ones didn't win. Below are a few of my favorites. And here are the links to the past three years of winners too -- 2005, 2004, and 2003.

The ones below are all borrowed from here.

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Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man as "a 'multiconceptual image' [used] to illustrate rotation, transparency, and transverse section." Credit: Caryn Babaian, Bucks County Community College, Newtown, Pennnsylvania.


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A Cuban Banana Cockroach. Credit: David Yager, University of Maryland, College Park



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"[F]ive well-known mathematical surfaces, rendered as glass objects in a highly realistic 'Still Life.'" Credit: Richard Palais, University of California, Irvine, and Luc Benard



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This one's actually from the 2005 contest. It represents "a neuron prepar[ing] to transmit a signal to its target." Credit: Graham Johnson, Graham Johnson Medical Media, Boulder, Colorado. The version I'm showing here is actually a cropped one. Check this link for the full image.
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Lovely! I missed that (I find Science pretty loaded, as well, and stick to things related to my field or my specific interests - not always the same). Nikon also has a fantastic image contest for microscopy - I don't have the link on hand, but it's worth looking out for.