Science Visualized

  1. A United States maps focused on the average summer temperatures in 2021. The west coast is covered in a darker red color while the rest of the country is a light red/orange color.
    Climate

    The summer of 2021 was the Pacific Northwest’s hottest in a millennium

    Tree ring data from the Pacific Northwest reveal that the region’s average summer temperature in 2021 was the highest since at least the year 950.

    By Sid Perkins
  2. A microscopic image of columns of black particles. The top row has gold dots in the center
    Physics

    Videos of gold nanoparticles snapping together show how some crystals grow

    Real-time electron microscopy shows gold nanoparticles tumbling and sliding in a fluid before snapping together in crystalline structures.

    By James R. Riordon
  3. A close up photo of several ghost catfish swimming on a black background while a light is shining on some of their scales which appear iridescent.
    Animals

    These transparent fish turn rainbow with white light. Now, we know why

    Repeated structures in the ghost catfish’s muscles separate white light that passes through their bodies into different wavelengths.

    By McKenzie Prillaman
  4. A diagram showing every nerve cell in a larval fruit fly brain, in all the colors of the rainbow, on a white backdrop
    Neuroscience

    Scientists have mapped an insect brain in greater detail than ever before

    Researchers have built a nerve cell “connectivity map” of a larval fruit fly brain. It’s the most complex whole brain wiring diagram yet made.

    By McKenzie Prillaman
  5. An image from the James Webb Space Telecope showing face-on spiral galaxy, NGC 628, with its whorls of colored gas and dust, pockmarked with dark areas.
    Astronomy

    Newborn stars sculpt their galaxies in new James Webb telescope images

    Dark voids riddle the galaxies’ faces, highlighting previously invisible details about how new stars alter their locales.

    By Lisa Grossman
  6. two 3-D maps of the LRP2 protein
    Health & Medicine

    3-D maps of a protein show how it helps organs filter out toxic substances

    Images of LRP2 in simulated cell environments reveal the structural changes that let it catch molecules outside a cell and release them inside.

    By McKenzie Prillaman
  7. A microscope image of an adult sea spider made a full recovery after its back half was amputated.
    Animals

    Some young sea spiders can regrow their rear ends

    Juvenile sea spiders can regenerate nearly all of their bottom halves — including muscles and the anus — or make do without them.

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús
  8. In this image of an icicle, turned on its side, fluorescent green dye reveals where the contamination ends up.
    Physics

    Tiny bubbles that make icicles hazy are filled with water, not air

    Like tree rings, layers of itty-bitty water pockets also preserve a record of an icicle’s growth.

    By James R. Riordon
  9. An illustration of the spores of a soil fungi called Histoplasma.
    Health & Medicine

    Fungi that cause serious lung infections are now found throughout the U.S.

    Doctors should be on the lookout for three types of fungi that, when inhaled, can lead to serious infections, researchers say.

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  10. A male fruit fly with a long skinny red body and long dark eyestalks with red tips, stands on a leaf
    Life

    Certain young fruit flies’ eyes literally pop out of their head

    The first published photo sequence of developing Pelmatops flies shows how their eyes rise on gangly stalks in the first hour of adulthood.

    By Susan Milius
  11. a 3-D visualization of the Cat’s Eye nebula next to a Hubble image of the nebula
    Astronomy

    A 3-D model of the Cat’s Eye nebula shows rings sculpted by jets

    The Cat’s Eye is one of the most complex nebulae known. A 3-D reconstruction reveals the source of some of that complexity.

    By Lisa Grossman
  12. a microscopic image of a Madagascar giant day gecko hand, showing cyan-colored nerve cells amidst yellow and orange collagen, against a black backdrop
    Life

    A glimpse inside a gecko’s hand won the 2022 Nikon Small World photo contest

    The annual competition highlights microscopic images that bring the smallest details from science and nature to life.

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús