Each year an artistic competition calls on scientists at Princeton University to capture moments of beauty in their day-to-day researchText by Jennifer Pinkowski
Experiments in Beauty
Each spring, the "Art of Science" competition at Princeton University rewards three university scientists for their contributions — not to science, but to art. The dozens of submissions, created during the course of scientific research, can sometimes be surprisingly revealing, and the images represent fields as varied as astrophysics, fluid dynamics, genomics and zoology. (The image above is a close-up of a new "photonic solid" invented by Princeton physicists; think of it as a semiconductor of light, rather than electricity.)The winners receive nominal cash prizes, whose value is determined according to the golden ratio — the mathematical proportion considered to underlie the most aesthetically pleasing objects, natural or man-made. We won't expound the formula here, but see if you can figure it out for yourself: First prize is $250; second place takes $154.51; and the third prize is $95.49.Following are 10 of TIME's favorite images from the 2010 Art of Science contest. The full exhibit will be on display at Princeton until May 5, 2011.Marian Florescu, Paul J. Steinhardt and Salvatore Torquato / Princeton University Art of Science Competition
Chaos
During early development, an embryo uses stored chemical energy to emit signals that help synchronize cell division. But what happens when that chemical energy throws a wrench into the process? This visual representation of a mathematical model shows the impact of "asymmetrical" chemical energy on the cell division of an African clawed frog embryo. In the image, time moves from bottom to top. The oscillations that accompany cell division are stable at first, but they soon give way to waviness, and then to chaos. Researchers are investigating how the embryo maintains synchronous cell division despite its sensitivity to internal fluctuations.R. Scott McIsaac, KC Huang and Ned Wingreen / Princeton University Art of Science Competition
Separating Sperms
Sperm cells begin as bundles of interconnected cells, shown here as masses of flowing green strands. Structures called "individualization complexes" — the three red clusters — enable sperm to separate from each other and develop into individual cells. In the final stage of spermatogenesis, the individualization complexes travel along the sperm bundles (from right to left in this image), leaving fully formed mature sperm in their wake; you can see them just to the right of the red structures.Shuwa Xu / Princeton University Art of Science Competition
Xenon Plasma Accelerator
The first-prize winner, this photo depicts an exhaust plume from a Hall Thruster, a propulsion system that uses plasma (ionized gas, such as xenon) instead of chemical fuel to power spacecraft for both near-Earth and deep-space travel. Researchers at Princeton have been interested in experimenting with the Hall Thruster, because space vehicles propelled by plasma require less fuel overall.Jerry Ross / Princeton University Art of Science Competition
Summer
These nanowires — molecular structures with a diameter smaller than a billionth of a meter — were grown like "grass in the springtime" by synthesizing nickel, according to Nan Yao and Gerald Poirier, who created the image with an environmental scanning electron microscope. While nanowires are still in an experimental stage, they may one day be used to link extremely small circuits in environmental and health sensors or other molecular machines.Nan Yao and Gerald Poirier / Princeton University Art of Science Competition
It’s Not What You Think It Is
The title says it all. Although this image looks like a biological scene you might have learned about in your 7th-grade sex-education class, what's actually shown is a simulation of an astrophysical process known as "magnetic reconnection": opposing magnetic fields are spliced together, releasing high amounts of energy. (Solar flares, for instance, are thought to involve magnetic reconnection.) As a result, the magnetic fields become trapped in "islands," seen here as red orbs. Sailing between them are high-energy particles, which leave yellow tracks in their wake.Lorenzo Sironi and Anatoly Spitkovsky / Princeton University Art of Science Competition
Stirring Faces
These dramatic curlicues were generated by a computer simulation of the motion of a small body — in this case a flat, rigid plate — through an incompressible fluid, such as water or, in some conditions, air. Each of the four images depicts the same phenomenon, but at a different point in time. The "eyes" of the facelike pictures correspond to vortices of turbulence caused by the motion of the plate through the fluid. "Two direct goals of the research are to better understand how birds and insects fly, and to develop unsteady aerodynamic models for advanced micro-aerial vehicles," says Steve Brunton, a graduate student in Princeton's department of mechanical and aerospace engineering.Steve Brunton / Princeton University Art of Science Competition
Neutron Star Scattering off a Super Massive Black Hole
People who believe in astrology or aliens may look for hidden meaning in this model of a black hole sucking neutron stars into its maw. But the phenomenon has a perfectly natural astrophysical explanation. In an attempt to flee the black hole, these densely packed neutron stars — small but superdense and superhot remnants of massive stars that went supernova — scatter into eccentric, or noncircular, orbits, causing intricate and sometimes beautiful patterns. Eventually most stars escape. This image, generated by a computer algorithm, won third prize.Tim Koby / Princeton University Art of Science Competition
Sustainability in Art: Forest of Apatite
International law may guard ancient monuments from looters, but little can protect them against acid rain and other corrosive elements. This scanning electron microscope image illustrates one attempt to do so. Researchers in a Princeton art-conservation lab used apatite, a hard mineral, to create a coating of protective crystals — as seen in the center of the image — that shields the surface of marble, limestone and other calcareous materials from environmental degradation. (One form of apatite is a major element in tooth enamel and bone mineral.)Sonia Naidu and Enrico Sassoni / Princeton University Art of Science Competition
The Neutron Express
Since 1999, scientists working on the National Spherical Torus Experiment at Princeton have investigated nuclear fusion — the source of the sun's energy — in hopes that the process can one day provide a clean, sustainable energy source on Earth. It could be used to power any number of machines, including, for instance, the commuter relatives of the toy train shown here. This model train was mounted with a synthetic radioisotope (a source of neutrons — or energy) and sent on a continuous three-day loop on hobby train tracks to help inform other fusion experiments.Elle Starkman, Sly Vinson, Doug Darrow and Lane Roquemore / Princeton University Art of Science Competition
Hare-ball
Because it makes its home in an extreme environment, the desert hare is biologically designed to radiate excess heat through its lanky limbs and oversized ears. But on one chilly morning four years ago in Arizona's Saguaro National Park, Henry Horn, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, shot these photos: at left, the hare compresses itself into a sphere, minimizing its surface-to-volume ratio in order to retain heat and stay warm. When the sun broke through the clouds, the hare reverted to a more familiar posture.Henry S. Horn / Princeton University Art of Science Competition
