Multimedia Gallery
"Neuroforest"
"Neuroforest," by Matteo Farinella.
Last spring, London neuroscientist turned cartoonist Matteo Farinella published "Neurocomic," a graphic novel about a man who falls into a brain. In this illustration, taken from the book, Farinella uses a forest metaphor to depict brain cells and neurons (finely branched cells that form a vast and interconnected network) as a dense, sprawling network of intertwined tree roots and branches. "The brain is very complex. There are billions of neurons connected in ways that we are only beginning to understand," Farinella says. Paul Lipton, a neuroscientist at Boston University, says the image illustrates the brain's structural diversity. "The brain is indeed a forest," he says, "whose trees, or neurons, are its defining feature."
The illustration won experts' choice (first place) and people's choice in the illustration 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: Matteo Farinella
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