The National Science Foundation and Science magazine sponsored the sixth annual International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge this year, and the winners have been compiled in this slideshow.
Are those not AMAZING?
What? You didn’t look? Go back. Go back this minute and click on that link. This minute.
Okay. I can’t make you. But you are missing photographs of a diatom forest and toothy squid suckers, an incredible illustration of the human circulatory system, an eye-popping vision of Alice’s Wonderland (complete with Mad Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse beetles sipping tea from a butterfly wing table … in a field of chrystallized vitamin C), a thought-provoking representation of the Bible, and interactive/non-interactive media presentations that let you see things human eyes will never see. You really should give it a look.
The science connections here make me happy, but there are children’s literature connections that I find equally thrilling:
Firstly, the Mad Hatter’s Tea infographic uses micrographs by scientist and children’s book creator Dennis Kunkel. Kunkel has several great books to his name already—including HIDDEN WORLDS (a “Scientists in the Field” book written by Stephen Kramer), MOSQUITO BITE! and SNEEZE! (both written by Alexandra Siy)—and has plans to develop a series of children’s books based on this image. Should they come to pass, these books have no choice but to bend genres.
Secondly, Marc Aronson has written on his SLJ blog, Nonfiction Matters, about digital media and how it can—and does—affect the way new generations of kids absorb information and, by definition, how new generations of authors and illustrators must present information to them. I think these images are a concrete example of what Marc means when he says “cross-media big thinking”. A picture no longer represents a mere thousand words … it coalesces decades of scientific study, popular culture and technological breakthrough into a single digital learning experience!
Now will you look at that slideshow?
