Princeton researchers uncover the beauty in their work

Courtesy Princeton University Art of Science Competition

Published Jan. 21, 2016

Courtesy Princeton University Art of Science Competition

“Intelligent design” was the theme of this year’s Art of Science competition, in which members of the University community were invited to submit images created during research projects. “In the broadest sense, beautiful objects, both natural and the manufactured, have an intelligence to their form, their function, and thus, their design,” said Andrew Zwicker, the head of science education at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab and a co-organizer of the competition. Images will be on display at the Friend Center through November and can be viewed online at princeton.edu/artofscience/gallery2011/.

Top, the competition’s first-place winner was “Chaos and geomagnetic reversals” by Christophe Gissinger, a postdoctoral researcher in astrophysical sciences. The image shows a simple deterministic model illustrating the geomagnetic reversals of the Earth’s polarity.

Bottom,“Fireworks” by Yunlai Zha, an electrical engineering grad student, displays the patterns created after arsenic sulphide was dissolved in a solution, then spin-coated and baked on a chrome-evaporated glass slide.

Images courtesy of Princeton University Art of Science. For a complete gallery of entries, visit princeton.edu/artofscience/gallery2011/.

"This is a pyramidal neuron from the hippocampus, a part of the brain where some kinds of memories are formed. This neuron has been labeled with fluorescent antibodies so that we can visualize microtubules (shown in green), which form a structural network inside the neuron, and insulin receptors (shown in red), which are cell surface proteins that instruct neurons to make connections with other neurons. These connections, called synapses, become stronger or weaker as memories are constructed."

Intelligence Design: Lisa Boulanger (faculty), Dept. of Molecular Biology and Princeton Neuroscience Institute

"Arsenic sulphide dissolved in solution displays colorful random patterns after being spin-coated and baked on a chrome-evaporate glass slide."

Tropical Fish: Yunlai Zha (GS), Dept. of Electrical Engineering

"This is a photograph of the right paw print of a Bioko drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus poensis) taken during primate census at the Gran Caldera, Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. "Bushmeat hunting for drills and their consequent evasion of humans means the endangered, baboon-like drills are seldom seen in the wild, and even more rarely photographed. Instead, ephemeral evidence such as this damp, hand-like paw print – left just a minute or two before it was photographed – is the only trace of a near encounter between photographer and primate. The photograph begs the question 'who is watching whom?' "

Close Relative? Mac Haas (GS), Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Published in the Jan. 18, 2012, Issue