CELL*WISE

What is that an image of?
It's the inside of your nose. Well, more specifically, it's a CT scan of the sinuses (air-spaces) in a human nose. It was created by Kai-hun Fung, one of the winners of the 2007 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge (links below).

An important part of any scientific research is imaging. Whereas some results of experiments will be in the form of quantitative data, other results can be shown in the form of images. The best images bring the data to life and create visual excitement for the researcher and an audience. Images can also be so beautiful that they become art. And certainly the phrase, "a picture is worth a thousand words" comes to mind.

For biomedical science and engineering experiments, images are acquired by microscopy or medical imaging.

The three main categories of microscopy are optical/light microscopy (which has many subcategories), electron, and scanning probe. Optical microscopy, which uses visible light, includes such techniques as bright-field, phase contrast, dark-field, polarization, differential interference contrast (DIC), fluorescence (very important for life sciences!), confocal laser scanning (used with fluorescence), and multiphoton fluorescence microscopy. Light microscopes of today are integrated with a CCD camera, computer, and software into electronic imaging systems. Electron microscopy is a separate category microscopy that uses beams of electrons instead of light and includes transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Scanning probe microscopy is another category that includes atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and photonic force microscopy (PFM).

Medical Imaging is used to create images of biological tissues for clinical medical purposes as well as in medical science. Different medical imaging technologies include projection radiography (X-ray), fluoroscopy X-ray, MRI, computed tomography (CT or CAT scan), ultrasound, nuclear medicine, and many others.

Visualization (of scientific data) for science and engineering can be in the form of microscopic images and photographs, but it may also include illustrations (usually for medical), computer graphics, or animations, to name a few.

Since 2003, Science magazine and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have co-sponsored an annual visualization challenge. The categories for this challenge are "Photography" (which includes microscopy and medical imaging technologies, as well as photographs from just cameras), "Informational (Computer) Graphics", "Interactive Media" (websites with simulations, computer programs/interfaces), and "Noninteractive Media" (videos). Here is the special feature website of the 2007 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, which contains an article summarizing the 2007 Visualization Challenge Winners, and a slideshow of all the winning visualizations (in the "Online Extra" box). You will need a few minutes to watch each of the three videos in the Noninteractive Media category, but if you do, they are very interesting and the topics are nicotine, mobius transformations, and "cloud towers". Also in the "Online Extra" box you can find the previous years competitions.

University of Illinois at Chicago (home to the largest medical school in the U.S.) offers a Master's Program in Biomedical Visualization, which includes concentration areas of medical illustration, computer visualization, and 3-D model/prosthetic design.

I just happened to find the website for Nucleus Medical Art, who specialize in creating medical illustrations and 3D medical animations. Most relevant to this blog, watch the 3D animation they made for Bacterin International Inc. product OsteoSponge™ here.

*Fun Fact: The blue stuff in this blog's main header (with the title CELL*WISE), is actually my image of collagen fibrils within a collagen-based hydrogel that I prepared. I used multiphoton microscopy, which produces second harmonic generation (SHG) signal images of collagen fibrils.