Winners in the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s annual Cool Technology Image Competition — including a quilt organized around a mathematical theorem, a painting of tiny swimming plankton out for their daily constitutional and lung X-rays rendered by artificial intelligence as classic works of art — are some associated with the most diverse representations regarding science in the contest’s 12-year history.
A panel involving eight experienced artists, scientists and science communicators chose nine more images and a video based on the aesthetic, creative and scientific qualities distinguished from scores of entries. The particular winning entries showcase animal cells, crystalline structure, quantum computing equipment and the sweeping view of our galaxy.
An exhibit featuring the winners is open to the public at the McPherson Eye Research Institute’s Mandelbaum and Albert Family Vision Gallery on the ninth floor of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research, 111 Highland Ave., through December. A reception including contest entrants will be held in the gallery Thursday, Sept. 29, from 4: 30 to 6: 30 p. m. and is also open to the public.
Winning creators used a new wide array of tools, including incredibly sophisticated microscopes and point-and-shoot digital cameras, innovative machine learning computers and a needle and fabric. A common thread runs through the creators’ desire in order to explore the world around us with more than the mind’s eye.
“The pursuit of science is about more than abstract ideas, ” says Kelly Tyrrell, a contest judge, molecular biologist and UW–Madison director of media relations plus strategic communications. “Science can allow us to see the unseeable and uncover the unknown. Science images, videos in addition to art can offer a tangible glimpse into and through the universe, and help us to better know ourselves, too. ”
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These stylistically different takes on chest X-rays were created by generative adversarial networks, computing networks designed to “learn” like the human brain learns. While these particular works of art are more beautiful than useful in radiology, GANs are used in medical imaging to enhance, classify and even reconstruct information and understand the differences between X-rays of a COVID case (top), pneumonia (bottom) together with healthy lungs (center).
Dalton Griner ,
graduate student, Medical Physics;
Xin Tie ,
graduate college student, Medical Physics
chest x-rays and PyTorch deep learning framework
This image connected with brain cells from the cerebellum of a mouse was made possible by the addition of the gene that fuses a fluorescent red molecule to a protein called vimentin, which forms filaments in cell walls and is particularly present during cell development, wound healing and additionally the spread of cancer. The red “tag” allows researchers to tell the blue nuclei from your red vimentin filaments within studies from the mice.
Karolina Lungova ,
research intern, Neuroscience;
Darcie Moore ,
professor, Neuroscience
confocal microscope
Viewed with the eyepiece of any microscope, aluminum wires one-third the diameter of some sort of human hair connect superconducting devices to be able to a microchip. During experiments, the microchip is cooled to -460 degrees Fahrenheit (just one-hundredth of a good degree above absolute zero) to explore the laws of portion physics not to mention test nanotechnology for mess computing.
Benjamin Harpt ,
graduate pupil, Physics
digital camera
Stem cells derived from skin cells of your rhesus macaque monkey appear like multi-colored pearls atop spindly mouse tissues that provide the stem cells with crucial support as they grow. These originate cells — which have the particular potential to become any type with cell inside the body, but carry a genetic mutation linked to frontotemporal dementia —will be coaxed to form brain tissue and used to study the development of the disease.
Julia Gambardella ,
graduate student, Cellular & Molecular Pathology and also Wisconsin National Primate Research Center;
John Maufort ,
scientist, Morgridge Institute for Study and Wisconsin National Primate Research Center;
Marina Emborg ,
professor, Medical Physics as well as Wisconsin Country wide Primate Study Center
Digital-inverted microscopic lense
Follow this mathematical thread: The perfect regularity and symmetry for the traditional “Storm at Sea” patchwork has been disrupted throughout this quilt by shifting, in tandem, neighboring corners in the four-sided shapes inside white plus navy blue, placing the pairs of offset corners at a random position along typically the edge about the square or rectangle in which the quadrilaterals are inscribed. The 41 light glowing blue quadrilaterals connect the midpoints of the edges of the white asymmetric quadrilaterals, and each is your visual illustration of Varignon’s Theorem, which usually proves that its shape must be some parallelogram.
Amy Wendt ,
teacher, Electrical in addition to Computer Engineering
machine pieced and even quilted cotton fabric
Typically the strong, vertical line of this vagus nerve — appearing red along with other nerves — carries motor together with sensory info through often the green muscle in a rat’s neck. Using a polarizing filter, researchers analyze the way peripheral nerves and their own fatty layer of insulation reflect light. The technique may one day be used to help surgeons work around delicate nerves by distinguishing them from other tissue.
Rex Chin-Hao Chen ,
graduate scholar, Biomedical Executive;
Bruce Knudsen ,
researcher, Biomedical Engineering;
Matthew LaLuzerne ,
undergraduate student, Mechanical Engineering;
James Trevathan
man of science, Biomedical Anatomist;
Kip Ludwig , professor,
Biomedical Engineering
Polarization Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography
Tissue from a damaged muscle around the leg of a fabulous mouse includes healthy, uninjured cells appearing empty and additionally outlined on red. Researchers studying your way aging and disease disrupt muscle mass growth not to mention regeneration are interested in the difference between those healthy cellular material and the green-and-blue muscle come cells, called satellite skin cells, which are missing a protein necessary for the exact healing process.
Jamie Hibbert ,
postdoctoral fellow, Comparative Biosciences
Keyence microscope
Some zooplankton — tiny swimming organisms that will play an outsized role within the food webs in oceans — migrate daily up and down during the water column to find food and also avoid predators. This painting, developed by the artist during her residence at an UW –Madison limnological research station, depicts the migration of zooplankton species found in Escanaba Lake for Vilas County, Wisconsin.
Christina Weatherford ,
science marketing communications intern, Trout Lake Station
acrylic paint
This particular community with the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa , a common cause of dangerous hospital-acquired infections, bands together into a biofilm to facilitate communication, stick to surfaces like healthcare devices as well as defend against antibiotics. Experts study the particular P. aeruginosa genes relevant to biofilm formation in hopes of finding ways to disrupt them and kill typically the bacteria.
William Heelan ,
graduate university student, Pharmacy;
Ryan Ward ,
graduate student, Genetics;
Amy Banta ,
research science tecnistions, Pharmacy;
Jason Peters
mentor, Pharmacy
digital microscope
While it is difficult to see this stars from the Milky Way anywhere near often the lights of a city, the galactic display in this assemblage of pictures taken over the Qingdao, China, area (population 7 million) is visible thanks for you to the blanket of fog dampening Qingdao’s light pollution.
Yingshun Sun ,
graduate student, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
digital camera
A polarizer makes arabitol shine as light passes from the sugar alcohol, illuminating its transparent structure like a pane of stained glass or the sections associated with a butterfly wing. This crystal structures of drugs have profound influence on the way pharmaceuticals work in your body. Observing crystal formation in arabitol and similar substances helps researchers ensure safe plus effective pharmaceutical drugs (and sharp LCD screens and perfectly tempered chocolate).
Amy Neusaenger ,
scholar student, Drug-store
polarized light microscopic lense
Dairy cows graze as the sun rises over an important spring pasture in Ireland. Conor Holohan visited UW–Madison from College Dublin to research ways to improve the nutrition in addition to production regarding grass-fed bovine on dairy farms inside the U. S. Midwest.
Conor Holohan ,
visiting researcher, Animal & Dairy Sciences
camera
Even from orbit 22, 200 miles above Earth, the GOES-17 satellite captured the shockwave from the exact explosive eruption on the Hunga Tonga volcano as it passed through atmospheric water vapor over the Pacific Ocean upon Jan. 15, 2022 — eventually circling the planet many times. The images were created from satellite data using software developed at UW–Madison in the 1970s and even still in use worldwide.
Timothy J. Schmit , meteorologist, James P. Nelson III , data engineer, together with Mathew M. Gunshor , researcher, all of the Cooperative Company for Meteorological Satellite Studies
Digital rendering of satellite data
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Often the Cool Research Image Contest recognizes the particular technical and additionally creative skills required to help capture not to mention create photos, videos and other media of which capably reveal something about science or nature while also leaving an impression together with their beauty or ability to induce wonder. The contest is sponsored by Madison’s Promega Corp., with additional support through UW–Madison’s office of University or college Communications.
Winning entries are shared widely about UW–Madison websites, and all entries are showcased in campus technology outreach events and in academic and lab facilities close to campus throughout the year. See last year’s those who win.
The contest judges were:
Steve Ackerman, tutor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and also vice chancellor for research and graduate student education
Kevin Eliceiri, director, Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation
Michael King, visual marketing and sales communications specialist, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Steve Paddock, former researchers, Molecular Biology
Kara Rogers, research writer as well as editor, Encyclopedia Britannica
Ahna Skop, professor involving genetics
Kelly Tyrrell, director connected with media relations and strategic communications, College or university Communications
Craig Wild, videographer, School Communications