Take a stroll through fantasyland, courtesy of Hollywood and Cinemaps! The new book Cinemaps: An Atlas of 35 Great Movies features 35 beautiful full-color maps of your favorite fictional movie worlds that will help you relive so many great stories, from 1933's King Kong through modern classics like Mad Max: Fury Road and Guardians of the Galaxy. Artist Andrew DeGraff illustrates the geography, the path of the plot, and the mood of each adventure, accompanied by A. D. Jameson's essay's on each film. Neatorama is pleased to give you a close look at some of these maps, with exclusive commentary by the artist.  

Cinemaps artist Andrew DeGraff tells us what went through his mind as he designed these gorgeous maps.

Jurassic Park

I love painting islands, especially when it comes to movie maps. Jurassic Park's Isla Nublar had sort of a tricky aspect to it though. Shot on Kawai'i, the Jungle feels dense, almost claustrophobic. That's great for hiding animatronic T-Rex's, but tricky when you want to show characters running around on the forest floor. Fortunately, I had dealt with this a bit in my Predator map and it really just takes some well-planned forest clearing and trying to make sure when characters do move behind some trees, their arrow doesn't get lost. The other problem was the Visitors Center - I was totally tempted to get into the interior. The rotating theater, the lab, the cafe, but that would have meant radically enlarging the Visitors Center, and the island would have lost a bit of its isolated, pristine feel. Color wise I was really trying to find a scheme that felt slightly twilight-y: not bright sunlight, but not the dark of night either. I wanted the piece to have a taste of that foreboding feel that happens during the initial tour before the storm: a little overcast and grey. While Hammond wants the island to be a vacation spot, I wanted the viewer to get a feel of something lovely and verdant, but with an edge.  

Princess Bride

For The Princess Bride, I basically broke it down into three worlds. One world is the Grandfather and the Grandson reading and imagining the film, which is the bright blue that frames all the action. The other two are of course those mortal enemies: Florin in light blue, Guilder in light red. The tones for this map were intentionally low impact. There's some very fun set design and lovely locations in the film, but the movie's all about the characters which are larger than life (some more than others). I really wanted them to stand out. All in all, it's a marvelously simple movie. Set in a lovely English and Irish landscape of rolling hills and fields, the film has a warmth and comfort to it. It does a great job creating that nostalgic storybook "default setting" feel, and playing off those expectations with humor. What struck me was how refreshing it was to map a movie built completely on great writing and performance. So often the films in sci-fi and fantasy - even the comedies - can be almost weighed down by production design. Now, I love all that design, but the dynamic of Princess Bride is so wonderfully airy and light and I tried to capture that feel in the map.

The Wizard of Oz

I never had cable as a kid, and since I was only allowed an hour of TV per week I wasn't one of those kids who grew up on The Wizard of Oz. When I eventually watched the whole movie in college I didn't have any preconceived notions about it, and just found it to be a completely, totally, gleefully insane movie. It is a totally singular piece of art. It's worthy of obsession. And now I'm a little obsessed. So, while it's a film I've come to adore, it was a bananas movie to map. Much of the scenery is painted backdrops, and much of the matte painting and special effects shots seem to have little bearing on each other. For instance, look at the witch's castle when she leaves on her broom to write "Surrender Dorothy" and then look at it when the Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man approach it, and you'll have a hard time reconciling the two. Most of mapping the film meant trying to tie together soundstages into a cohesive world - very fun, and strangely tricky.

The full book also includes maps from The Shining, Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Fargo, Pulp Fiction, and even The Breakfast Club, among others. Cinemaps: An Atlas of 35 Great Movies is now available in both hardcover and ebook at Quirk Books. It would make a great Christmas gift for any fantasy fan or movie buff.   

Special thanks to Andrew DeGraff for the images and commentary.

(Image credit: National Geographic)

The May 2017 issue of National Geographic features an in-depth look at What Makes a Genius. Author Claudia Kalb and photographer Paolo Woods bring us examples of genius, from Leonardo da Vinci to jazz pianist Keith Jarrett, with an overview of the scientific research into what makes those kinds of people different from the rest of us.

Throughout history bright minds have flocked to nexuses of creativity like Silicon Valley, where Wenzhao Lian, a researcher at Vicarious, an artificial intelligence company, teaches a robot how to recognize and manipulate objects. The company aims to develop programs that mimic the brain’s capacity for vision, language, and motor control. (Image credit: © Paulo Woods/National Geographic)

Advances in genetic research now make it possible to examine human traits at the molecular level. Over the past several decades, scientists have been searching for genes that contribute to intelligence, behavior, and even unique qualities like perfect pitch. In the case of intelligence, this research triggers ethical concerns about how it might be used; it is also exceedingly complex, as thousands of genes may be involved—each one with a very small effect. What about other kinds of abilities? Is there something innate in having an ear for music? Numerous accomplished musicians, including Mozart and Ella Fitzgerald, are believed to have had perfect pitch, which may have played a role in their extraordinary careers.

Genetic potential alone does not predict actual accomplishment. It also takes nurture to grow a genius. Social and cultural influences can provide that nourishment, creating clusters of genius at moments and places in history: Baghdad during Islam’s Golden Age, Kolkata during the Bengal Renaissance, Silicon Valley today.

Legendary Cyphers, a freestyle rap group, performs on Friday nights at Union Square Park in New York City. Collaboration fuels the event as artists take turns “spitting” lyrics. Like any creative undertaking, rapping requires practice. “If you do this enough, it’s like a muscle,” says Palladium Philoz, one of the group’s organizers. (Image credit: © Paulo Woods/National Geographic)

Jazz pianist Keith Jarrett improvises concerts that last for as long as two hours. "The only thing that works," he says, “is letting go.” (Image credit: © Paulo Woods/National Geographic)

Natural gifts and a nurturing environment can still fall short of producing a genius, without motivation and tenacity propelling one forward. These personality traits, which pushed Darwin to spend two decades perfecting Origin of Species and Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan to produce thousands of formulas, inspire the work of psychologist Angela Duckworth. She believes that a combination of passion and perseverance—what she calls “grit”—drives people to achieve. Duckworth, herself a MacArthur Foundation “genius” and a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, says the concept of genius is too easily cloaked in layers of magic, as if great achievement erupts spontaneously with no hard work. She believes there are differences when it comes to individual talent, but no matter how brilliant a person, fortitude and discipline are critical to success. “When you really look at somebody who accomplishes something great,” she says, “it is not effortless.”

Some 10,000 pairs of identical and fraternal twins are part of geneticist Robert Plomin’s longitudinal study at King’s College London, providing clues about how genes and environment affect development. The genetics of intelligence are enormously complex. “Most geniuses,” says Plomin, “don’t come from genius parents.” (Image credit: © Paulo Woods/National Geographic)

Read the entire article at National Geographic. All images are from the May 2017 issue of National Geographic magazine.

An image of a four-day-old zebrafish by Dr. Oscar Ruiz of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center won top honors today at the annual Nikon Small World competition. The contest honors the beauty and technical skill shown in the tiniest parts of our world found through microphotography. Here are the top twenty winning photographs.

Ist Place
Dr. Oscar Ruiz
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
Four-day-old zebrafish embryo
Confocal
10x

Oscar Ruiz, Ph.D., brings the world face-to-face with his research on facial development and cellular morphogenesis with his winning image of a four-day-old zebrafish embryo. Dr. Ruiz uses the zebrafish to study genetic mutations that lead to facial abnormalities such as cleft lip and palate in humans in the lab of Dr. George Eisenhoffer at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Using time-lapse images of the developing Zebrafish face as a guide, Dr. Ruiz is creating an atlas of the development of the zebrafish face. His group is tracking physical landmarks throughout development to create a series of metrics that can be used to accurately describe the cellular movements that occur during the normal development of the face.  These metrics can then be used to identify abnormalities in the development of Zebrafish harboring specific genetic mutations identified in human patients.  He hopes that these findings will help provide insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms that are altered in patients with facial deformities.

“Until now, these facial abnormalities had not been extensively studied in a live context where you can see what’s happening during development in real-time," said Dr. Ruiz. Using a live-imaging approach means we can better understand and pinpoint exactly how and why these developmental abnormalities occur. The first step is knowing how it happens. Then we can figure out how to fix it.”



2nd Place  
Douglas L. Moore
University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point  
Museum of Natural History, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA
Polished slab of Teepee Canyon agate  
Stereomicroscopy
90x

Douglas Moore entered his first Nikon Small World competition over 20 years ago, in 1993.  He is a retired photographer and adjunct faculty member at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, and currently holds the position of Emeritus Curator at the Museum of Natural History at the University.  

This vibrant specimen captured by Moore is a polished slab of Teepee Canyon Agate - a 273-million-year-old marine sedimentary agate in the Black Hills of western South Dakota. Teepee Canyon Agate is striking both macroscopically and microscopically, with vibrant colors and wide bands alternating between chalcedony fibers and iron oxide particles boldly displayed in this specimen.  

As an agate collector and former biologist, Moore is fascinated by these "so called ‘sedimentary agates’ or ‘ limestone agates.’ They are different structurally from volcanic agates and sometimes contain fossils or are replacements of fossil structures such as coral heads or sponges. “The genesis of these agates is poorly understood. What causes the formation of alternating bands is thought to be an oscillating crystallization sequence," says Moore. "That such beauty and detail could be locked in a 273-million-year-old rock amazes me."

3rd Place
Rebecca Nutbrown
University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford, United Kingdom
Culture of neurons (stained green) derived from human skin cells, and Schwann cells, a second type of brain cell (stained red)  
Confocal/Immunofluorescence/iPSCs
20x

Rebecca Nutbrown is a PhD student at the University of Oxford, in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. This is her first time entering Nikon Small World, and this is one of the first microscopic images she has ever taken. She is intrigued by the opportunity to capture images at a cellular level, in order to advance the understanding of the brain.

The image shows a co-culture of different brain cell types, namely neurons (axons stained green) derived from human skin cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) and rodent primary Schwann cells (myelin sheath stained red). The cell bodies are stained blue. Nutbrown spent many hours using multiple advanced technologies to develop and showcase the intricate network of the brain.  

Nutbrown submitted this image with a purpose, “to highlight the beauty and complexity of the cellular network in our brains.” She believes the cultures captured in this image represent the first steps in developing revolutionary advancements in personalized medicine and neuroscience. A novice to microphotography, Nutbrown states, “I am fascinated by how the microscope and fluorescence can reveal such complex beauty, completely missed by the naked eye.”

4th Place
Jochen Schroeder  
Chiang Mai, Thailand  
Butterfly proboscis  
Image Stacking
6.3x

5th Place
Dr. Igor Siwanowicz
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia, USA
Front foot (tarsus) of a male diving beetle
Confocal
100x

6th Place  
Marek Mis
Marek Mis Photography, Suwalki, Podlaskie, Poland
Air bubbles formed from melted ascorbic acid crystals
Polarized Light
50x

7th Place
Dr. David Maitland 
Feltwell, United Kingdom
Leaves of Selaginella (lesser club moss)  
Differential Interference Contrast
40x

8th Place
Samuel Silberman
Monoson Yahud, Israel  
Wildflower stamens  
Fiber Optic Illumination
40x

9th Place
Vin Kitayama and Sanae Kitayama
Vinsanchi Art Museum Azumino, Azumino, Nagano, Japan
Espresso coffee crystals
Polarized Light

10th Place
Rogelio Moreno Gill
Panama, Panama
Frontonia (showing ingested food, cilia, mouth and trichocysts)  
Differential Interference Contrast
200x

11th Place  
Francis Sneyers
Brecht, Belgium
Scales of a butterfly wing underside (Vanessa atalanta)
Macroscopy
10x  

12th Place
Dr. Dylan Burnette
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee, USA  
Human HeLa cell undergoing cell division (cytokinesis). DNA (yellow), myosin II (blue) and actin filaments (red)  
Structured Illumination
9x

13th Place
Walter Piorkowski
South Beloit, Illinois, USA
Poison fangs of a centipede (Litius erythrocephalus)
Fiber Optic Illumination/Image Stacking
16x

14th Place
Dr. Keunyoung Kim
University of California, San Diego, National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR), La Jolla, California, USA
Mouse retinal ganglion cells  
Fluorescence/Confocal
40x

15th Place
Geir Drange
Asker, Norway
Head section of an orange ladybird (Halyzia sedecimguttata)
Reflected Light/Focus Stacking
10x

16th Place
Stefano Barone
Diatom Shop, Palazzo Pignano, Italy
65 fossil Radiolarians (zooplankton) carefully arranged by hand in Victorian style  
Darkfield  
100x

17th Place
Jose Almodovar
University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus, Biology Department, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
Slime mold (Mixomicete)
Image Stacking/Reflected Light
5x  

18th Place
Pia Scanlon
Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, Biosecurity and Regulation - Pest Diagnostics, South Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Parts of wing-cover (elytron), abdominal segments and hind leg of a broad-shouldered leaf beetle (Oreina cacaliae)
Stereomicroscopy, Image Stacking
40x

19th Place
Dr. Gist F. Croft, Lauren Pietilla, Stephanie Tse, Dr. Szilvia Galgoczi, Maria Fenner, Dr. Ali H. Brivanlou  
Rockefeller University, Brivanlou Laboratory, New York, New York, USA
Human neural rosette primordial brain cells, differentiated from embryonic stem cells
Confocal
10x

20th Place
Michael Crutchley
Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom
Cow dung  
Darkfield
30x

See honorable mentions and more at Nikon Small World and at the Small World Instagram feed. You can still vote for your favorite image in the Popular Vote category until October 25th. The Nikon Small World in Motion competition, which honors microphotography in video form, will announce this year's winners on December 14th.

Mars needs YOU! In the future, Mars will need all kinds of explorers, farmers, surveyors, teachers . . . but most of all YOU! Join us on the Journey to Mars as we explore with robots and send humans there one day. Download a Mars poster that speaks to you. Be an explorer!

Do you have what it takes to explore an alien planet? In 2009, NASA commissioned a set of recruitment posters for an exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex. The posters were designed with a retro feel in 21st-century eye-popping colors.

Now they are online and free to download. You can even print out your own 30x48 posters -if you have a printer that will do the job. Or just enjoy looking at them here.

-via Digg

(All images credit: NASA/KSC)

Food artist and photographer Henry Hargreaves teamed up with set designer and installation artist Nicole Heffron for a year-long birthday project. And not just any birthday, either. Each month is about the birthday of a Hollywood filmmaker with an avid fanbase. The idea is that when obsessive fans stage a celebration for their favorite director, they incorporate themes and motifs from that director’s films. So each celebration includes a birthday cake or other dessert in a tableau that illustrates the filmmaker’s style and accomplishments.

You will be able to pick at least some of them by the picture alone, but if not, the captions are underneath in movie poster-style credits.  

And here’s a video that explains the project a little more.

(YouTube link)

See more of Henry Hargreaves projects in our previous posts.

We saw the beautiful microphotography of the 2015 Nikon Small World Photography Competition only a couple of months ago. Today, Nikon has announced the winners of its other competition, called Small World in Motion. This contest brought entries from all over the world of the microscopic world in video form. 

The Small World Photography competition has been goign since 1975, and the Small World in Motion Competition was added in 2011 to recognize excellence in video microphotography, whether it is time-lapse, compressed time, or a straight movie. All types of light microscopy techniques are accepted: phase contrast, polarized light, fluorescence, interference contrast, darkfield, confocal, deconvolution, and mixed techniques. Each gives us a look at the tiny worlds around us we’d never see otherwise.

First Place Winner


Mr. Wim van Egmond
Micropolitan Museum
Berkel en Rodenrijs, Netherlands
Tracheliusciliate feeding on a Campanella ciliate
250x

First Place was awarded to veteran winner Wim van Egmond of the Micropolitan Museum in The Netherlands. Judges were impressed with the thrilling glimpse of microscopic wildlife van Egmond captured in this video of predator and prey: The ciliate Trachelius feeding on another ciliate, the bell animalcule Campanella. The microorganisms in this slow-moving attack were scooped out of a friend’s backyard pond, as van Egmond hoped to inspire her to take more interest in her microscope. Luckily he had his camera ready when he recognized the predator and prey so close together, capturing a real-time recording when the attack began. Wildlife is so close to us, yet most of us never look close enough to see it, said van Egmond. A pool in your garden is actually a miniature underwater jungle teeming with life. If you want to see the world, your backyard is a great place to start.

How it was captured
Van Egmond knew that the favorite meal of the ciliate Trachelius ovum is bell animalcules, a type of ciliate that lives on a stalk. In the past he had already tried to put them together in a slide but had never seen the actual feeding happening. They are not the easiest prey because they can contract with tremendous speed. When he finally did succeed in capturing the moment it was actually not his intention. He was just going through a slide when he noticed a Trachelius next to a bell animalcule. He started filming but in the beginning nothing happened. He was about to stop when it suddenly moved towards the bell animalcule and started to devour it.

About the Winner 
Wim van Egmond is a freelance photographer who has been photographing through the microscope for 22 years. Mr. van Egmond is also a veteran Small World winner, including first place in the 2012 Nikon Small World still competition. In recent years he has put more time in moving images, thanks to advancing DSLR video capabilities that allow him to capture movement and behavior of microorganisms. "For me, microscopy is about exploring living organisms - so you should see them alive and moving," said van Egmond.


Second Place
Miss Danielle Parsons
Wonder Science TV
Los Angeles, United States
Gut contents of a termite, containing hundreds of species of single-celled parabasalid microorganisms (Trichonympha)
Darkfield
40x & 100x

About the Video
Second place in the 2015 Nikon Small World in Motion competition went to Danielle Parsons of Wonder Science TV in the United States. Her video provides a glimpse into the roiling gut contents of a termite, including the organisms that help break down wood for their termite hosts. The darkfield microscopy Parsons employed affords dramatic lighting effects and a bold color palate, resulting in an almost cinematic quality of the video.

"The fact that these are mutually beneficial relationships was appealing," said Parsons. "I think it's important to highlight examples of harmony in nature, and counterbalance a media climate that celebrates fear, disaster and conflict in nature. I think my video is significant in so far as it promotes the wonder of nature."

About the Winner
Danielle Parsons is a science communicator and visual artist. The primary outlet for her work is her  YouTube channel, Wonder Science TV. She researches, writes, films and edits videos about specific  topics spanning a range of scientific disciplines.


Third Place
Mr. Gonzalo Avila
University of Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand
A parasitoid larva (Cotesia urabae) breaking out of its host (Uraba lugens) and then spinning its cocoon to start pupation
10x

About the Video/Technique
Gonzalo Avila of Auckland claimed third place for his mesmerizing yet horrifying video of a parasitoid wasp larva breaking out of its host and spinning its cocoon. Grim as this parasitism process appears, these wasps play a critical role in controlling the population of the aptly named Gum-Leaf Skeletoniser moth - a pest causing serious damage to Eucalyptus in Australia and New Zealand. While the process of the larva slowly breaking out of its host body can take several hours, Avila’s video is played at 64x speed to show the escape in a matter of skin-crawling seconds.  

The hardest part for Avila was to synchronise with the correct time that the parasitoid was going to start breaking out from the host. "The rearing process of this parasitoid is quite challenging and time demanding, as well as the manipulation of parasitoids when emerging from hosts. Most of people don't know about the role of insect parasitoids on controlling agricultural and forestry insect pests. When an endoparasitoid successfully develops into its host body, it starts slowly breaking out of its host for and the process may take several hours," said Avila. "As it takes quite a long time to happen, most of time researchers cannot appreciate how this whole process occurs and how fascinating it may be to see the whole process in just a few minutes."

About the Winner
Avila is currently finishing his PhD at the University of Auckland, and is doing his research on the

behavioural ecology and host-parasitoid interactions of the biological control agent Cotesia urabae. He wanted to show the audience one of the fascinating aspects of the parasitism process by parasitoid wasps, and particularly Cotesia urabae which is the species he is working with on his PhD research.

Honorable Mention
Dr. Jing Yan, Jie Zhang &  Dr. Steve Granick
Princeton University
Princeton, United States
Janus colloids, micron sized particles that spontaneously move in an AC electric field
40x


Honorable Mention
Dr. Paolo Annibale & Enrico Gratton
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, United States
Fluorescently labeled chromatin array (LacI-mCherry: red) and mRNA (MS2-EGFP: green) in U2OS 263 cells following Dox induction (+30′). Discrete Petals of mRNA synthesis are clearly
visible moving on the surface of the transgene array
Confocal
60x


Honorable Mention
Dr. Alireza Abbaspourrad
Cornell University
Ithaca, United States
Structural emulsions containing nutrients releasing its contents upon exposure to a simulated
gastric fluid
40x

Honorable Mention
Dr. Annie Lu & Dr. Srinivasa Raghavan
University of Maryland
College Park, United States
Chitosan capsules containing platinum reacting with hydrogen peroxide under a glass slide
2x


Honorable Mention
Dr. Abigail Tucker & Dr. Marcia Gaete
King's College London
London, United Kingdom
Mouse whisker follicle development in culture
Stereomicroscopy
6.3x


Honorable Mention
Mr. Ralph Grimm
Jimboomba, Australia
Rotifer (Lepadella triba) feeding
1000x

Honorable Mention
Dr. Daisuke Kurihara
Nagoya University
Nagoya, Japan
Thale cress plant (Arabidopsis thaliana) embryogenesis
Confocal
30x

Honorable Mention
Dr. Michael Weber  
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Dresden, Germany
Cardiovascular system of a 4 day old zebrafish
20x


Honorable Mention
Mr. Michael Evers
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, United States
A human dermal fibroblast tissue phantom ablated by a 5 ns long laser pulse
3.05x


Honorable Mention
Ms. Haripriya Mukundarajan, Vivek N. Prakash, Nicolas Harmand & Manu Prakash
Stanford University
Stanford, United States
Cyanobacterium (Oscillatoria princeps) filaments
Brightfield
100x


Honorable Mention
Dr. John Hart
University of Colorado Boulder, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
Boulder, United States
Soap film
10x-50x


Honorable Mention
Mr. Wim van Egmond
Micropolitan Museum
Berkel en Rodenrijs, Netherlands
Water flea (Ilyocryptus)
100x


Honorable Mention
Mr. Gerd-A. Günther
Unicellular ciliates (Paramecium caudatum and Frontonia leucas)
Differential Interference Contrast (first sequence) and Polarized Light (second sequence)
300x


Honorable Mention
Mr. Wim van Egmond  
Micropolitan Museum
Berkel en Rodenrijs, Netherlands
Penicillium fungi growth, showing hypha, spore production and guttation droplets
10x

Honorable Mention
Dr. Luigia Santella, A. Puppo, JT Chun, G. Gragnaniello & E. Garante
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Naples, Italy
Intracellular calcium increase and sperm incorporation following fertilization of a starfish egg
70x60um

If you are interested in entering the 2016 Small World in Motion competition, see the Small World website.

A beautiful closeup of the eye of a honeybee won top honors today at the annual Nikon Small World competition. The contest honors the beauty and technical skill shown in the tiniest parts of our world found through microphotography. Here are the top photographs.

1st Place Winner

Ralph Claus Grimm
Jimboomba, Queensland, Australia
Eye of a honey bee (Apis mellifera) covered in dandelion pollen (120x) Reflected Light

This year’s first place image is both highly topical and stunning: a close-up look at a honey bee eye, with visible pollen stuck to the surface around it. The honey bee crisis continues to grow, as just last week the USDA announced $4 million in assistance for improving food sources for honey bees. The aim of this image is to communicate to the viewer through the eye of a bee how intricate andbeautiful nature is and that we are living in a super-busy high-tech world where an increasing number of people are losing their human identity in a steady decline of art as an important part of our society.

Grimm employed impressive technique to capture this image stack, including over four hours of careful work to mount the eye, set the focus increments, properly illuminate the eye and avoid peripheral smudging during the stacking process. The resulting image is a testament to Grimm’s painstaking efforts.

Australian Ralph Grimm brings the world eye-to-eye with a honey bee in this year’s powerful first place winning image, which features a close-up look at a bee eye covered in dandelion pollen grains. As a high school teacher, self-taught photomicrographer and former beekeeper, the subject matter is near and dear to Grimm’s heart. While colonies continue to dwindle and bee populations disappear, Grimm hopes his image can serve as a voice for this endangered insect that plays such a critical function in pollinating the world’s crops.

2nd Place

Kristen Earle, Gabriel Billings, KC Huang & Justin Sonnenburg
Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Stanford, California, USA
Mouse colon colonized with human microbiota (63x) Confocal

This is an image of the colon of a mouse that was born germ-free, or completely sterile of microbes. T
he Mouse was colonized with a human microbiota, and used DNA probes to label certain taxa, in this case, members of the Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes phyla. The only technique used in this photo is the polarized light (Crossed Polars). This is no easy feat. There are many challenges to imaging the gut microbiota. The mucus layer (green) is not preserved with standard fixatives, and the vast majority of the community is adjacent to this layer and in the fecal pellet contained within the tissue. Much care has to be taken to preserve these features.

Kristen Earle has just completed a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford.  For her dissertation, she wanted to get a better sense of the spatial organization of the gut microbiota, because we know so much about the composition of the community, but so little about its physical structure. Microscopy was an obvious choice. She found that she enjoyed the aesthetic component of the research.

3rd Place

Dr. Igor Siwanowicz
Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Janelia Farm Research Campus, Leonardo Lab
Intake of a humped bladderwort (Utricularia gibba), a freshwater carnivorous plant (100x) Confocal

The image shows an entrance to the trap (or bladder) of Humped Bladderwort (Urticulatia gibba), a
carnivorous freshwater plant.  The bladderwort's trap is one of the most - if not the most - sophisticated plant organs in existence. Several elements of the bladder’s construction are visible in the image, giving some insight into working of this tiny – only 1.5 mm long – but elaborate suction trap.  Igor doesn’t usually work with plant tissue, but found the preparation didn’t seem to be much different from processing insect/invertebrate tissue. To image exoskeleton of an insect he often uses a chitin-binding dye, Calcofluor white and it shows affinity to cellulose.  

Igor is a research specialist at Janelia Research Campus of HHMI working on steering circuit of a
dragonfly. He thinks the relationship between science and art is best described in words of the French
polymath and philosopher of science Jules Henri Poincare: “the scientist does not study nature becauseit is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful”.

4th Place

Daniel H. Miller & Ethan S. Sokol
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of
Biology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Lab-grown human mammary gland organoid (100x) Confocal

The image depicts a mini-organ, known as an organoid, grown from human mammary gland tissue in the lab. The pink stain in the image shows a cytoskeletal protein, actin, while the (often overlapping) green and red stains in the image depict two proteins that mark stem cells. These kinds of images are crucial to his research, as they allow him to determine the location of stem cells in a developing mammary gland. Imaging large, three-dimensional structures stained with fluorescent probes is often challenging. Since the relevant information that they want to collect is not restricted to one plane, they are required to collect a series of images and reconstruct the three-dimensional structure afterwards.

David studies human mammary epithelial development. The mammary gland is a unique organ, in that its development occurs primarily after birth, and in response to hormones. He first started using microscopy as an undergraduate at Brown University in 2007, where he was studying neural connectivity in the developing brains of tadpoles undergoing metamorphosis into adult frogs. Since then he has continued to use microscopy in a number of different research fields, ranging from ovarian cancer research to developmental research.


5th Place
Dr. Giorgio Seano & Dr. Rakesh K. Jain
Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital
Edwin L. Steele Laboratory for Tumor Biology
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Live imaging of perfused vasculature in a mouse brain with glioblastoma  
Optical Frequency Domain Imaging System


6th Place
Henri Koskinen
Helsinki, Finland
Spore capsule of a moss (Bryum sp.)
Reflected Light


7th Place
Evan Darling
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, New York, USA
Starfish imaged using confocal microscopy (10x)
Confocal


8th Place
Dr. Tomoko Yamazaki
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Nerves and blood vessels in a mouse ear skin (10x)


9th Place
Dr. Nathanaël Prunet
California Institute of Technology and Dartmouth College, Department of Biology
Pasadena, California, USA
Young buds of Arabidopsis (a flowering plant) (40x)
Confocal


10th Place
Ian Gardiner
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Clam shrimp (Cyzicus mexicanus), live specimen (25x)
Darkfield, Focus Stacking


11th Place
Rogelio Moreno Gill
Panama, Panama
Fern sorus at varying levels of maturity (20x)
Fluorescence, Image Stacking


12th Place
Hannah Sheppard-Brennand
Southern Cross University, National Marine Science Centre
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Developing sea mullet (Mugil cephalus) embryos (40x)
Brightfield



13th Place
José Almodóvar
University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Mayaguez Campus, Biology Department
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, USA
Tentacles of a carnivorous plant (Drosera sp.) (20x)
Image Stacking


14th Place
Viktor Sykora
Charles University, First Faculty of Medicine
Prague, Czech Republic
Australian grass (Austrostipa nodosa) seed (5x)
Darkfield


15th Place
Dr. Heiti Paves
Tallinn University of Technology, Department of Gene Technology
Tallinn, Estonia
Anther of a flowering plant (Arabidopsis thaliana) (20x)
Confocal


16th Place
Charles Krebs
Charles Krebs Photography
Issaquah, Washington, USA
Feeding rotifers (Floscularia ringens) (50x)
Darkfield


17th Place
Dr. David Maitland
Feltwell, United Kingdom
Black witch-hazel (Trichodactylus crinitus) leaf producing crystals to defend against herbivores (100x)
Differential Interference Contrast



18th Place
Roland Gross
Gruenen, Bern, Switzerland
Hairyback worm (Chaetonotus sp.) and algae (Micrasterias sp.) (400x)
Differential Interference Contrast


19th Place
Dr. Richard Kirby
Marine Biological Association
Plymouth, United Kingdom
Planktonic larva of a horseshoe worm (phoronid) (450x)
Darkfield


20th Place
Frank Reiser
Nassau Community College, Department  of Biology
Garden City, New York, USA
Suction cups on the diving beetle (Dytiscus sp.) foreleg (50x)
Image Stacking, Photomerge

See more at Nikon Small World.

Artist Henry Hargreaves has given us plenty of food art in the past, and now he a new project to unveil- Yellow Submarine, a series of The Beatles in Jello!

I've always enjoyed toying with people's expectations when it comes to food. Here, viewers might be fooled into thinking they're looking at a 2D illustration of The Beatles's Yellow Submarine — but upon closer inspection, they'll realize the reflective color blocks are, in fact, made entirely of Jello.

Leading up to the 2012 US elections, I did portraits of all 44 presidents, using plasticine to construct moulds of each face. Each mould was then filled with Jello, and the plasticine was removed once the liquid was set. With this new project, I applied the same method but left the plasticine in resembling the pen lines in a drawing in order to recreate a cartoon I've loved for as long as I can remember — it was, in the end, a fun way to introduce one enduring childhood treat to another.

And here's a video about the project:

(JELLO SUBMARINE x HENRY HARGREAVES from jimjims on Vimeo)

See more of Hargreaves' work in our archives, and at his website.

Dutch artist Chungkong creates clever posters of all kinds. You can see quite a few of them in our previous posts. But along the way, he found himself really getting into redesigning movie posters in minimalist style.

Chungkong enjoyed it as a new hobby, and thought he work on the project until there were an even 100 posters. ("A nice round number.") But he got carried away, because he enjoyed it so. Before you know it, there are 500 Chungkong movie posters!

He says,

The entire collection is best described by one title in particular: ”The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”.

Sure, all the best and most beautiful movie titles are there, but also the bad and ugly movie titles.

I cherish them as much as the best ones. For it is precisely those films that provide the contrast so the good can shine.

All over it is a colorfull and shapefull collection. Living and breathing. Which still grows every month with 10 to 20 titles (I’m open for tips and suggestions).

So what's the next step? He's going for an even thousand!

Of course, that's just a small taste of the 500 movie posters Chungkong has produced. You can see the entire collection (so far) at Chungkong's gallery.

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson)

Miss Emmylou Cakehead (previously at Neatorama) snagged another opportunity to make gruesome but delicious dishes around a theme: an alien invasion! To promote the new season of the TV series Falling Skies, Miss Cakehead teamed up with culinary renegade Jim Thomlinson of London Mess to create a feast of seafood fashioned in the likeness of the the aliens from the show.

The event was Tuesday in London, and featured not only dishes such as “Espheni limbs” and “mucus eyeballs of Skitters,” but the actual aliens from the show were flown in, including the three-meter tall Scorch, a Skitter, and a Harness, plus the alien ally Cochise. The event was held at the Old Street Roundabout, which had been decorated in a post-apocalyptic manner. 

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson)

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson)

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson)

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson) 

The Menu was as follows:

Volm Venom (black champagne)
Mixed Alien Brains (traditional cockles and whelks)
Charred Skitter (BBQ soy and garlic marinated whole squid)
MucusSkitter Eyeballs (Irish rock oysters, hot green chili sauce and black olive paste)
Grilled Harnesses (extra large black tiger prawns with Szechuan pepper butter)
Scorch Fingers (razor clams with a cucumber and wasabi relish)
Mixed Alien Organs (whole crabs, cuttlefish, and octopus cooked in front of guest on ‘egg’ barbecues)  
Espheni Limbs (crab legs)
Dried Skitter Skeleton (squid floss)

And for dessert, the Scavenged Dessert Table, featuring a variety of fruits and cakes, plus edible bullets, edible glass, and Black Hornet Brains (lychees). 

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson)

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson)

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson)

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson)

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson)

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson)

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson)

(Image credit: © Chris Coulson)

The fifth and final season of Falling Skies premieres in the U.S. this Sunday, June 28, on TNT and on Tuesday the 30th on First on FOX in the UK.

You wouldn’t know it today, but at one time, the entire concept of watching Hollywood movies in your own home was a revolutionary idea. We rented and bought movies like crazy, and watched them over and over. This craze brought with it a new art form -that of the home video cover. Now that VHS has given way to on-demand streaming, that art form is part of history. The 1980s and ‘90s were its heyday.

That lost art form is curated in a new book VHS: Video Cover Art by Thomas “The Dude Designs” Hodge. It contains over 240 full-scale, complete video sleeves of all movie genres, with designs ranging from the mundane to the insane. The book explores the images, typography, and sometimes hilarious text that was designed to reach out and grab you from the shelves of the movie rental store. Author Tom "The Dude Designs" Hodge writes:

My work has been built around a lifelong love (bordering on obsession at times!) of VHS and the amazing artwork used to adorn video covers. They were ingrained in my psyche from the first time I ever entered a video store as a child. I have a particular fondness for video art from the UK (my home country) as many of the covers were specially commissioned by independent distributors and not seen much outside of this market.

This incredible artwork was created by amazing artists such as Enzo Sciotti, Renato Casaro, Caudio Casaro, Brian Bysouth, Graham Humphreys, and Laurent Melki. Many artists sadly remain unnamed. The one thing they all held in common is the style and spirit of pure unabashed creativity, where art and film came together in a visual orgy of mustached muscled men, buxom beauties, big explosions, phallic guns,and nightmare-inducing monsters. Sadly this art form largely disappeared along with demise of the VHS format.

Neatorama is proud to bring you a sampling of the cover art from the book VHS: Video Cover Art.

VHS: Video Cover Art will be available in May through Schiffer Publishing and at a bookstore near you. You can pre-order your copy now from Amazon.

What will we be eating in the post-apocalyptic world? What will you survive on when it all goes south? Henry Hargreaves, who you may remember from his various food-related art projects, has been exploring the world of doomsday preppers and the foods they stockpile for the coming disasters.

In the US alone there are over 3 million people preparing for the end of time; this sub-culture is known as Doomsday Preppers.

I connected with some of them to discuss their Armageddon menus. They are designed around their religious beliefs, lifestyles, location, health, and what they think will work on the heels of the disaster they predict.

Initially I expected this to be a rather sensational series, but as I spoke to some of the subjects I actually was surprised by the brilliance in their approach. They have been able to stand back and see the whole food system from afar and realize, in any kind of disaster, the food distribution chain is the first thing to break and they don’t want to be left vulnerable, if and when it does…

I created dishes that they will potentially be eating once the system breaks and they have become self sufficient. Through their choices of these foods I think their personal story comes to life.

The art project consists of a short profile of the prepper and a typical meal prepared from the ingredients they believe will be available to them after disaster strikes.

These meals sure look better than the fresh opossum and expired baby formula we see the unprepared masses consume after a TV apocalypse. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the project at Hargreaves’ website.

Winter starts off exciting, but it ends as we grow utterly weary of snow, ice, and cold temperatures- 2015 more than most. But spring is coming around the corner and it’s time to dream of nature’s yearly renewal and blooming flowers and those lovely green spaces we call gardens. And just in time for those dreams, Roads Publishing presents Reflections: Gardens, available March 15th, with a forward by Andrew Grant.   

Francis Bacon once said, “God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.” Gardens are our connection to the earth, a restorative place to relax and contemplate the wonder of nature. The great gardens of the world are a each reflection of the culture that created them, a theme explored in the book Gardens. I was delighted to get a preview of the book in gorgeous photographs, and which Neatorama is proud to share with you.  

Desert Botanical Garden -- Arizona, USA
(Photo courtesy of Desert Botanical Gardens)

The Desert Botanical Garden was founded in Papago Park in the northern part of the Sonora Desert by the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society in 1939.

Gardens by the Bay -- Singapore
(Photo courtesy of Far East Organization Children's Garden, Gardens by the Bay)

Gardens by the Bay -- Singapore
(Photo courtesy of Far East Organization Children's Garden, Gardens by the Bay)

The most astounding feature of the gardens are undoubtedly the ‘Supertrees’ which are home to enclaves of unique and exotic ferns and vines. There is an elevated walkway between two of the larger supertrees which allows visitors to enjoy an aerial view of the gardens.

Het Loo -- Gelderland, The Netherlands
(Photo courtesy of See Holland)

Originally laid out in the Dutch baroque style for William and Mary of Orange between 1686 and 1695, these gardens were transformed by Louis Napoleon around 1807 when the walls and stairways were replaced with an array of fine trees.

Keukenhof -- Lisse, The Netherlands
(Photo courtesy of Keukenhof Lentepark)

The world’s largest flower garden was created in the fifteenth century by the Countess of Holland, Jacoba van Beieren, for growing fruit and vegetables.

Lost Gardens of Heligan -- Cornwall, England
(Image credit: (c) Tracy Packer)

Situated on the estate on which the Cornish Tremayne family were resident for over 400 years, the Lost Gardens of Heligan offer the visitor over 80 hectares to explore.

Château de Marqueyssac -- Aquitane, France
(Photo courtesy of Laugery-Les Jardins de Marqueyssac-Dordogne)

The Château de Marqueyssac is a seventeenth-century building offering superb panoramic views of the Dordogne valley. It was built by Bertrand Vernet de Marqueyssac, Counsellor to Louis XIV. In 1861, it was inherited by Julien de Cerval, who had a passion for gardens, having spent time in Italy. He redesigned the series of terraced gardens and planted more than 150,000 boxwood trees carved into fantastical rounded shapes.

Namba Parks -- Osaka, Japan
(Photo courtesy of Jerde)

The most distinguishing feature of Namba Parks is undisputedly the rooftop park that connects to the street and ascends eight levels, inviting visitors into the groves of trees, lawns, water features and other natural amenities, all placed around a man-made canyon. This innovative design creates quiet pockets of green in which to dine and relax within a busy urban environment.

Powerscourt Gardens -- Wicklow, Ireland
(Photo courtesy of Powerscourt Estate)

Set on almost 20 hectares, visitors today enjoy its Triton pool and fountain, the Italian and Japanese gardens, statues and ornamental lakes, rambling walks, tree-lined avenues, cascades, grottos and a very unusual pet cemetery.

Schau- und Sichtungsgarten Hermannhof -- Hessen, Germany
(Image credit: (c) Jerry Harpur)

The garden cultivates about 2,500 species, and in spring it is host to vast swathes of tulips. It also has a peony collection and a North American prairie garden, and many of the garden’s trees, including a giant sequoia, date back to its very beginnings.

Gardens of Versailles -- Île-de-France, France
(Photo courtesy of Toucan Wings)

The greatest of baroque formal gardens, the Gardens of Versailles, situated to the west of the palace, cover some 800 hectares of land, much of which was landscaped by André Le Nôtre under the orders of Louis XIV. The gardens are now one of the most visited public sites in France, receiving more than six million visitors a year.

Château de Villandry -- Centre, France
(Image credit: (c) Jerry Harpur)

The château was bought by Dr Joachim Carvallo in 1906 and, with the help of fourteenth century texts, he spent eighteen years restoring the elaborate gardens to their original strict geometric layout.

These are just a taste of the many beautiful gardens and gorgeous images in the new book Reflections: Gardens, with text in four languages, available March 15th from Roads Publishing. Order yours from Amazon.

You know those little comment cards that businesses would like you to fill out for feedback? Wouldn’t it be nice if we had those for every situation of life? You’ll find comment cards for all kinds of everyday services and relationships in the new book Comment Cards for Life by Derek McCloud.

You could really use a checklist for all the parts of your roommate that need improvement. Or maybe you want to leave a complaint with the neighbor whose dogs bark all night. How about handling out a card to get feedback on your own performance -as a lover, friend, or family member? Here's just a sample of the many cards available in the book.

Comment Cards for Life is available now in paperback at Amazon and at a bookstore near you.

Comment Cards for Life by Derek McCloud. Copyright © 2015 F+W Media, Inc. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

The new Dreamworks animated feature film Home will hit theaters on March 27. Based on the acclaimed children’s book The True Meaning of Smedkay by Adam Rex, it involves the collision of two worlds: the everyday life of a young girl named Tip (voiced by Rihanna) and the fish-out-of-water extraterrestrial called Oh (Jim Parsons). In their adventures together they travel the Earth and beyond.

The book The Art of Home by Ramin Zahed gives us a glimpse into the process of creating the beautiful scenes, characters, and action we’ll see in the film.

The Art of Home explains how each of the three races in Home were designed. Each has its own geometric plan. While humans are essentially in a linear world, the antagonistic alien Gorg are triangular. Oh belongs to the Boov, an alien species whose bodies and spaceships are round.

The Human world is geometrically designated as linear, built on squares and rectangles, mostly due to the architecture of Earth.

But Tip, the Human protagonist, is drawn realistically as a 12-year-old girl appears. So is her mother, Lucy. Not so much for her cat named Pig; he’s there for laughs.

(Image credit: Ravinder Kundi, Emil Mitev & Jason Scheier)

It’s when the worlds of the Boov and the Humans collide that the geometric art blends in gorgeous panoramas. As Tip and Oh travel, we are treated to familiar yet alien landscapes.

(Image credit: Emil Mitev)

"Since the whimsical multi-location voyage had to be told in the space of a few minutes, our goal was to make the locations instantly recognizable-but with a Boov twist."—Emil Mitev, Art Director

(Image credit: Emil Mitev)

But Home is not all sweetness and travel. Enter the Gorg, an alien race that threatens both the Boov and the Humans. The Gorg are reminiscent of sea creatures, with shapes based on the sharp edges of triangles. That goes for their spaceships as well.

The features of all three races come together in lush artwork to tell the tale of an unlikely friendship in Home. The beautiful companion book The Art of Home by Ramin Zahed is now available for purchase at Insight Editions and at Amazon. It includes a foreword by Jim Parsons, a preface by Tim Johnson, and an afterword by Adam Rex.

The Dreamworks film Home opens nationwide on March 27.

(YouTube link)

Reprinted from The Art of Home by Ramin Zahed published by Insight Editions. © 2015 DreamWorks Animation L.L.C. All rights reserved.