Science Visualized

  1. Life

    See these dazzling images of a growing mouse embryo

    A new microscope creates intimate home movies of mice embryos taking shape, and could shed light on the mysterious process of mammalian development.

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  2. Animals

    How math helps explain the delicate patterns of dragonfly wings

    Scientists have found a mathematical explanation for the complex patterns on the wings of dragonflies and other insects.

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  3. Planetary Science

    The ghosts of nearly two dozen icy volcanoes haunt dwarf planet Ceres

    The slumped remains of 21 ice volcanoes suggest that the dwarf planet Ceres has been volcanically active for billions of years.

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  4. Chemistry

    See the ‘periodic table’ of molecular knots

    A new table of knots points the way to twisting molecules in increasingly complex pretzels.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Air pollution is shaving a year off our average life expectancy

    The first country-by-country look at how dirty air affects when we die shows it can have more impact on mortality than breast or lung cancer.

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  6. Neuroscience

    This colorful web is the most complete look yet at a fruit fly’s brain cells

    Scientists compiled 21 million images to craft the highest-resolution view yet of the fruit fly brain.

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  7. Astronomy

    See this star nursery shine in a stunning new infrared image

    A newly released image of star cluster RCW 38 shows the intricate details of wisps of gas and dust surrounding newborn stars.

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  8. Chemistry

    How a particle accelerator helped recover tarnished 19th century images

    Chemists used a synchrotron to peek beneath 150 years of grime on damaged daguerreotype images, revealing hidden portraits.

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  9. Earth

    Here’s a look at the world’s deadliest volcanoes — and the ways they kill

    Scientists gathered data on nearly 280,000 global volcano deaths from 1500 to 2017 and sorted fatalities by cause of death, such as lava flows or gas.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Satellite smashups could have given birth to Saturn’s odd moons

    Nearly head-on collisions between icy moonlets might be responsible for the peculiar shapes of some of Saturn’s moons, computer simulations suggest.

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  11. Paleontology

    Here’s how hefty dinosaurs sat on their eggs without crushing them

    Some heavier dinos had a strategy to keep eggs warm without crushing them: sit in an opening in the middle of the clutch instead of on top of them.

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  12. Animals

    See (and hear) the stunning diversity of bowhead whales’ songs

    Bowhead whales display a huge range in their underwater melodies, but the drivers behind this diversity remain murky.

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