Science Visualized
- Earth
Bird’s-eye views of the globe highlight avian trouble spots
Recent maps reveal trouble spots for the world’s imperiled birds.
- Astronomy
NASA unveils space suit fit for Mars
NASA’s newly revealed Z-2 space suit is the second mock-up of a suit that NASA hopes will eventually protect explorers walking on Mars or drilling into an asteroid.
- Neuroscience
Visualization offers view of a nerve cell’s dispatch center
To get a closer look at how messages move in the brain, researchers created a 3-D visualization that provides a clearer view of how nerve cells communicate.
- Life
A new twist on a twist
Nature abounds with perfect helices. They show up in animal horns and seashells, in DNA and the young tendrils of plants. But helix formation can get complicated: In some cases, the direction of rotation can reverse as a helix grows.
- Cosmology
Universe re-created in computer simulation
The Illustris Project traces the detailed evolution of the universe starting from 12 million years after the Big Bang.
- Animals
Narwhal has the strangest tooth in the sea
Sometimes called the unicorn of the sea, the male narwhal’s tusk is actually a tooth. Narwhals detect changes in water salinity using only these tusks, a new study finds.
- Astronomy
Distant swirling galaxy dwarfed by violent star killer
In a mosaic of images from a telescope in Chile, dark dust lanes and twisting tails betray a history of galactic collisions.
- Earth
Seismic signals chronicle deadly landslide
Washington state’s deadly Oso landslide was recorded in seismic waves.
- Earth
Evolution of river systems
A river’s erosion downward and across a landscape is based on a variety of factors, including terrain steepness and the arrangement of tributaries.
- Health & Medicine
Second wave of bird flu ups pandemic worries
The H7N9 avian influenza virus, which first appeared in 2013, is sweeping China with a second, larger wave of illness.
- Animals
A tiny ocean vortex, with pop art pizzazz
Coral polyps kick up a whirling vortex of water by whipping their hairlike cilia back and forth in the photography winner of the 2013 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.
- Neuroscience
Ways of seeing the brain inspire notions of how it works
As scientists have developed more sophisticated methods and ideas, their understanding of how the brain works has shifted too.
