The Eyes Have It

While browsing the gallery of award winners, you can listen to commentary from the creator of each image describing how it came to be.

The winners of the Awards challenge the public perspective that scientists don’t have an artistic side. Working every day with microscopes and imaging technology, these biologists have been able to capture stunning images through a blend of original and innovative techniques.

Despite the obvious visual appeal of the pictures, their primary purpose is investigation. The images are from research projects with the ultimate goal of helping to improve healthcare through new forms of prevention, treatment and vaccination.

“Pictures have always played an important role in the scientific process, especially in the history of anatomy Whether woodcut, sketch, sculpture, X ray, or MRI, visual images have helped us observe describe, model, categorize, analyze, and conceptualize the human body. How has this imagery changed the ways we look al our bodies? The Exploratorium invites you to delve into this provocative question posed by Revealing Bodies, an exhibition from March 18 to September 4, 2000, made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the California Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts“

Slated for August 25-29, 2005, registration for the 3rd World Congress of Medical and Scientific Imaging should be open soon:

“In keeping with our theme, ‘Explore: Discover the Possibilities’, the 2005 World Congress aims to inform delegates of the latest trends in medical and scientific imaging so that the potential of modern technologies can be fully realised. … The program will consist of 3 days of academic papers, a professional exhibition, and a unique opportunity to take part in a Great Barrier Reef expedition.”

See you there? (Oh who am I kidding? Like it would be possible to get the powers-that-be to shake loose the necessary funds.)

Kidney stone photographs from the Louis C. Herring & Co. Kidney Stone Analysis Laboratory (”We Leave No Stone Unturned”). Painfully and surprisingly beautiful. There’s also poetry in their reports and analyses as well as in they way they describe the initial visual inspection of the stones:

“The true nidus is invisible because it is the first crystal or aggregate of crystals precipitated from solution and deposited at what eventually becomes the stone site. An “apparent nidus” is either a region from which crystalline forms radiate or the geometric center surrounded by concentric laminations.”

[via lonita’s links log]