visualizing science is cool (and necessary)!

There’s a great article by Amy Wallace in today’s New York Times (“Science to Art, and Vice Versa”) on two really interesting artist-scientists. This is not a biology-related article, but it does address some of the concerns from my first biocreativity post. Thanks to my Uncle Phil for passing it on. I think Matthew McCory was right on when he said (and I quote from the article), “The scientists at Northwestern do physics, chemistry and biology really well, but they generally don’t have a clue when it comes to making good-looking images,” he said. “A lot was getting lost in translation.” Of course, this is not something unique to Northwestern. Luckily, there are folks like McCrory and Nathalie Miebach working to improve science communication through artistic visualization projects. Should visualization and presentation skills be just as critical as knowing how to analyze your data? If so, how do we begin to improve the artistic toolboxes of scientists?