Science Visualized
- Earth
Color-coded radar maps reveal a patchwork of California wildfire destruction
A composite made up of fine-scale vegetation maps from different years lets researchers track the story of plant loss and regrowth around Los Angeles.
- Neuroscience
Famous brain sketches come to life again as embroideries
A needlework project pays tribute to the iconic drawings of Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal.
- Physics
Explore every gravitational wave event spotted so far
This interactive visualization reveals the diversity of smashups that generate gravitational waves.
- Archaeology
One of the oldest known cave paintings has been found in Indonesia
A drawing of a pig on the island of Sulawesi dates to at least 45,500 years ago.
- Space
This new image reveals a sunspot in unrivaled detail
An image taken by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope — the largest solar observatory on Earth — provides the best look yet at a sunspot.
- Animals
Hundreds of new genomes help fill the bird ‘tree of life’
More than 10,000 bird species live on Earth. Now, researchers are one step closer to understanding the evolution of all of this feathered diversity.
- Anthropology
These human nerve cell tendrils turned to glass nearly 2,000 years ago
Part of a young man’s brain was preserved in A.D. 79 by hot ash from Mount Vesuvius’ eruption.
- Life
A glowing zebrafish wins the 2020 Nikon Small World photography contest
The annual competition features snapshots that use microscopy to reveal some of Earth’s smallest hidden marvels.
- Health & Medicine
Lung cell images show how intense a coronavirus infection can be
Microscopic views reveal virus particles coating the hairlike cilia of an airway cell from the lungs.
- Ecosystems
Protecting half the planet could help solve climate change and save species
An analysis lays out where new land protections could complement existing protected areas to achieve various conservation and climate goals.
- Physics
Toy boats float upside down underneath a layer of levitated liquid
The upward force of buoyancy keeps objects afloat even in unusual conditions.
- Plants
New Guinea has more known plant species than any island in the world
In the first verified count of plants on New Guinea, a team of 99 botany experts identified more than 13,600 species.
