Comment Aesthetic value in science (Score 1) 60
I think that these images highlight the value of aesthetics in science, especially for the purposes of communication. The scientists rendering these photos make choices of perspective and colour schemes that dramatically effect whether it communicates the message. Science, after all, is not always merely about facts, but about a message. And it is important for scientists to be able to communicate those facts.
While some may bemoan the lack of scale bars, it must be kept in mind that these images are made to communicate an idea. Rest assured that they likely have hundreds of copies of the same or similar structures with scale bars in abundance... and this too is an aesthetic choice.
I think that the greater question should lie in asking ourselves as scientists, is it the "prettiest" paper that gets published in Nature or Science? It seems that quite often there is a direct correlation between the aesthetic quality of figures and graphs and the likelihood of publication in more prestigious journals.
Interesting science with far reaching consequences can easily be passed up if not presented in an attractive manner. I think that may be the greater question - do aesthetics applied to scientific data create biases? Or is it merely a more effective means of communicating a message?
While some may bemoan the lack of scale bars, it must be kept in mind that these images are made to communicate an idea. Rest assured that they likely have hundreds of copies of the same or similar structures with scale bars in abundance... and this too is an aesthetic choice.
I think that the greater question should lie in asking ourselves as scientists, is it the "prettiest" paper that gets published in Nature or Science? It seems that quite often there is a direct correlation between the aesthetic quality of figures and graphs and the likelihood of publication in more prestigious journals.
Interesting science with far reaching consequences can easily be passed up if not presented in an attractive manner. I think that may be the greater question - do aesthetics applied to scientific data create biases? Or is it merely a more effective means of communicating a message?