Art Meets Science

ASMRtists, as they are called, type on keyboards, tap on brushes and whisper gently to induce "the tingles." But is there any whisper of scientific truth to the trend?

How Researchers Are Beginning to Gently Probe the Science Behind ASMR

Once a mysterious Internet phenomenon, "tingleheads" are starting to get real scientific attention

This image shows how an iris clip, also known as an intraocular lens, is fitted onto the eye. The clip is a small, thin lens made from silicone or acrylic with plastic side supports to hold it in place. It is fixed to the iris through a tiny surgical incision and can treat cataracts and near-sightedness.

Contest Winners Capture the Eerie Beauty of Medical Imagery

From stained mice placenta to an implant in the eye, this year's Wellcome Image Award recipients highlight the beauty of science

Westgate Park's salt lake has once again turned cotton-candy pink.

Why Did This Australian Lake Turn Bright Pink?

Hot weather, scant rainfall and high salt levels have created a perfect storm for pinkness

Patrick O'Brien, "Dinosaur and Volkswagen," Gigantic, 1998, oil on canvas - How big is “gigantic?” Patrick O'Brien shares his life-long fascination with the illustrations of prehistoric animals in children's books with a new generation of young readers. Other images in Gigantic compare dinosaurs with modern devices such as monster trucks, cherry pickers and tanks. O’Brien lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

A New Exhibition Explores the Science and Math in Children's Book Illustrations

The 29 artworks on display capture the wonder in nature, engineering and discoveries

The beauty of this mutant strain of the fungus Trichoderma reesei belies the organism’s potential for dismantling biomass.

Scientists Make Art From Objects Invisible to the Naked Eye

Sophisticated microscopes, satellites and other instruments can create stunning images in experts’ hands

The 38,000-year-old woolly mammoth carving next to Georges Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte." Despite the vast amount of time between their respective creations, both use a collection of dots to form a larger image.

Prehistoric Pointillism? Long Before Seurat, Ancient Artists Chiseled Mammoths Out of Dots

Newly discovered 38,000-year-old cave art predates the French post-Impressionist art form

This is a pyramidal neuron, so named for the pyramid-shaped body at the center of this drawing, from the cerebral cortex of a human. This outermost layer of the brain integrates information from sensory organs, commands movements and is the hub for higher brain functions, such as consciousness. In his drawing, Cajal gives the branches or dendrites different weights to show how the neuron extends in three-dimensional space. It’s likely that this represents a sort of idealized portrait of a pyramidal neuron, a synthesis of many observations.

Revel in These Wondrous Drawings by the Father of Neuroscience

A new book and exhibition pay homage to Santiago Ramón y Cajal’s impressive powers of observation

Abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky, who may have been a synesthete, once said: "Color is the key. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano with its many chords. The artist is the hand that, by touching this or that key, sets the soul vibrating automatically."

Feel the Music—Literally—With Some Help From New Synesthesia Research

How one artist created a show inspired by the neurological experience of synesthesia

Patrons of the sciences once offered cash prizes, exotic pets and even islands for world-changing discoveries. Here, Louis XIV surveys the members of the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1667.

For Your Contributions to Science, I Humbly Bequeath You This Pet Moose

A history of motivating scientific endeavor through cash prizes, islands and exotic pets

Iron-thiocyanate complex, droplet on surface

Time-Lapse Photos Reveal the Beauty of Metal Crystals Growing

Photographer Emanuele Fornasier spends hours capturing the intricacy of chemical reactions

Morbid Anatomy Museum Closes Its Doors

But the museum that delights in the dead will have an afterlife

Margaret Harwood sits on the floor for this posed tableau taken on May 19, 1925. Harvia Wilson is at far left, sharing a table with Annie Cannon (too busy to look up) and Antonia Maury (left foreground). The woman at the drafting table is Cecilia Payne.

In "The Glass Universe," Dava Sobel Brings the Women 'Computers' of Harvard Observatory to Light

Women are at the center of a new book that delights not in isolated genius, but in collaboration and cooperation

Surface water seasonality between October 2014 and October 2015 in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh. Dark blue indicates permanent surface water; light blue indicates seasonal surface water.

High-Resolution Satellite Images Capture Stunning View of Earth's Changing Waters

An unprecedented mapping project shows the elusive patterns of Earth's surface water over 30 years

A visualization of Eyal Gever's #Laugh art project

This Artist Wants to Send a Sculpture of Your Laughs Into Space

#Laugh is on orbit to become the first art piece created in space

The Best "Art Meets Science" Books of 2016

Eight sumptuous books from the past year that meet at the intersection of science and art

Legacy is scheduled to be on display at the Ontario Science Centre beginning in 2017 before embarking on an international tour.

This Whale Sculpture Was Modeled After a Beached Orca

Canadian artist Ken Hall built <em>Legacy</em> based on 3D scans of the skeleton of Hope, an orca that died on the coast of Washington in 2002

A forest grows in miniature at Metrotech Commons in Brooklyn for Spencer Finch’s “Lost Man Creek."

A Miniature Living Redwood Forest Springs Up In Brooklyn

Artist Spencer Finch explores landscape by building a tiny, scale replica of a California grove

Gemasolar Thermasolar Plant, 37.560755°, –5.331908° This image captures the Gemasolar Thermosolar Plant in Seville, Spain. The solar concentrator contains 2,650 heliostat mirrors that focus the sun’s thermal energy to heat molten salt flowing through a 140-metre-tall (460-foot) central tower. The molten salt then circulates from the tower to a storage tank, where it is used to produce steam and generate electricity. In total, the facility displaces approximately 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

These Photographs From Space Show What Humans Have Done to the Earth

In new book, vivid satellite images of the planet evoke what astronauts call "the overview effect"

Zak van Biljon photographed Kennedy Lake in British Columbia using infrared film.

Looking at Nature Through Infrared Film Will Have You Seeing Red

See the world on a whole different spectrum

Recycling your trash is all the rage this season.

Meet an Environmental Activist and an Artist Who Share a Passion for “Trashion”

One man's trash suit is another woman's work of art

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