Science, made into art

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The pattern of cells in human bodies (and patterns from all over the world of nature, for that matter) can make for some compelling images. We’ve written before about artists who’ve turned jellyfish into glass chandeliers or virus patterns into gorgeous, delicate doilies, the kind you could imagine setting out for afternoon tea then giggling quietly to yourself because Aunt Millie doesn’t know she’s dining off the SARS virus.

If you’re interested in that artsy kind of thing, check out Science magazine’s website where the winners of the ‘seventh annual International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge’ are posted. Who knows? You might find yourself compelled like never before by ‘Regulation of the cell cycle and DNA damage-induced checkpoint activation,’ which got an honorable mention in the infographic category. Me, I like ‘Branching Morphogenesis,’ by Peter Lloyd Jones and colleagues at Pennsylvania’s Sabin + Jones LabStudio -- it’s a 3.5-meter-high 3D piece of art made of thousands of zip ties to illustrate ‘the forces that lung cells exert as they form capillaries.’

--Rosie Mestel