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June 30, 2015

"False-color X-ray of a snapping turtle"

"False-color X-ray of a snapping turtle," by Ted Kinsman, Rochester Institute of Technology.

When professor of photographic sciences Ted Kinsman picked up this specimen on the side of the road one spring morning, he was hoping to get a good X-ray image of a snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina). But after he placed the turtle in the X-ray machine, Kinsman was surprised to see it had about 30 eggs hidden inside. He added false color to the image to accentuate them. Kinsman has been capturing images of local wildlife for the past decade--sometimes living creatures but more often dead ones, like this expired turtle. His students aren't surprised, he says, to find road kill in his lab's freezer.

The image won experts' choice (first place) in the photography category of the 2015 Visualization Challenge, now called The Vizzies, a long-running, annual competition co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Popular Science. [The competition was formerly named the International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge (SciVis) and was previously co-sponsored with AAAS' journal Science.] The competition aims to recognize some of the most beautiful visualizations from the worlds of science and engineering and awards prizes in five categories: photography, video, illustration, posters & graphics and interactives.

To learn more about the competition and view all the winning entries past and present, see the NSF The VIZZIES: Visualization Challenge Special Report. (Date of Image: unknown)

Credit: Ted Kinsman


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