2010 Visualization Challenge, First Place

Every year Science Magazine and the National Science Foundation team up to run a competition to recognize the most effective and cutting-edge efforts at visualizing scientific data, principles, or ideas.  Below is this year's winner, an illustration of the HIV virus (you can read about what you are seeing here) by Ivan Konstantinov, Yury Stefanov, Aleksander Kovalevsky, and Yegor Voronin.

(click to enlarge)

I was immediately struck by how much it looked like the Star Wars Death Star....cue evil shiver down spine. 

 Here are two less scary, warm and fuzzy, winners.....

A tomato seed by Robert Rock Belliveau

 Map of links between the genes of the mustard plant Arabidopsis thaliana by Insuk Lee, Michael Ahn, Edward Marcotte, and Seung Yon Rhee.

Right now, somewhere far away....

Just in case you were wondering what the Sun looked like today.....it was, in fact, stupendously beautiful!

Images taken today (at various wavelengths) by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite.  All click to enlarge.

Dianne Ayres's beautiful textiles

Last week a WMFC follower sent me a link to Dianne Ayres website Arts and Craft Period Textiles that sells gorgeous hand-embroidered pillows in Arts and Craft designs.  Even more enjoyable, you can buy the designs and materials as a full kit and make these pieces yourself.  Really beautiful.  I wondered who stitches the finished pillows?  If I find out, I'll update post.  Kits run about $45 and finished pillows around $150-250.

 

Heaven or Hell?

Detroit has over 12,000 abandoned houses, a small number of which have been documented by photographer Kevin Bauman's in his haunting 100 Abandoned Houses project.  The city is offering many of these homes free or for trivial amounts of money and in a few places little island of anti-blight are growing.  My first thought was "a renovator's dream!" but the scale of the urban decay soon overwhelms. 

Valentine...

Toronto's giant thimble

 

(photo by Peggy Hilliard)

When I saw this out of a taxi window today I knew I must be in a fashion district!  Wish there was time to explore the fabric and button shops....

Craft guerrillas

In praise of DIY - Outdoor furniture

These pieces, a glider bench, glider chair, small table, and chaise lounges, were all made with hand tools (some electric) and materials from the local hardware store.  The cushions for the chaise lounges were made with regular pillows.  All click to enlarge.

 

A young woman who helped spark a revolution!

 

26-year-old Asmaa Mahfouz of Egypt was featured in the New York Times yesterday.  On January 18th she recorded this video and uploaded it to YouTube and Facebook where it quickly went viral.  It called for her fellow citizens to join her in protest in Tahrir Square on January 25th. 

“As long as you say there is no hope, then there will be no hope, but if you go down and take a stance, then there will be hope.”