Vivid Visualizations: Prize-Winning Science Images

Gaming in a Leaf

Metablast leaf game

(Image credit: Eve Syrkin Wurtele, William Schneller, Paul Klippel, Greg Hanes, Andrew Navratil, and Diane Bassham (Iowa State University))

The People's Choice award in gaming goes to "Meta!Blast: The Leaf," a game used in science education. [Read full story on the Science Visualization Winners]

Our Dynamic Planet

dynamic earth visualization

(Image credit: Greg Shirah and Horace Mitchell (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center—SVS); Tom Bridgman (Global Science & Technology, Inc.))

An excerpt from "Dynamic Earth," a 23-minute planetarium show, took first prize in the video category. The excerpt shows a solar wind hitting Earth and solar particles deflecting off the planet's magnetic shield. [Read full story on the Science Visualization Winners]

Stem Cell Shorts

how stem cells work

(Image credit: Ben Paylor, Mike Long, Jim Till, Janet Rossant, Mick Bhatia, David Murawsky, and James Wallace (Stem Cell Network))

The video "StemCellShorts" won in a three-way tie for honorable mention. The animation shows how stem cell research works. [Read full story on the Science Visualization Winners]

Journey Through the Gut

gut immunology

(Image credit: Doug Huff and Elizabeth Anderson (Arkitek Studios); Zoltan Fehervari (Nature Immunology); and Simon Fenwick (Nature Reviews))

The honorable mention video "Immunology of the Gut Muscosa" animates the process of immune response in the gastrointestinal system. [Read full story on the Science Visualization Winners]

Plant Cells From Within

plant cell structure video

(Image credit: Geoffrey J. Harlow, Shou Li, Albert C. Cruz, Jisheng Chen, and Zhenbiao Yang University of California, Riverside)

The third honorable mention video shows the epidermal cells of a leaf, focusing on the genes associated with plant cell structure. [Read full story on the Science Visualization Winners]

Spherical Nucleic Acids

spherical nucleic acid explanation

(Image credit: Quintin Anderson (The Seagull Company); Chad Mirkin and Sarah Petrosko (Northwestern University))

The video "Spherical Nucleic Acids" show how these nucleic acids could potentially treat genetic disorders. This video won the People's Choice award. [Read full story on the Science Visualization Winners]

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science Contributor

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.