Art of the Demo: The Evolution of Insect Images By Joseph Parker

source: Columbia     2016年5月13日
Event: Columbia University Libraries' Data Visualization Week: The Art of Data Visualization
Hosted by: Columbia University's Science and Engineering Library

The forms of biological structures reflect their functions as well as their past evolutionary histories. Yet, for some primeval reason, at every scale the natural world appears beautiful to the human eye. As a consequence, the field of biology is an inherently aesthetic discipline, and central to the discipline’s own evolution has been the continued development of new ways for depicting the intricacies of biological entities. In this talk, I focus on a branch of biology fixated on the very small: entomology. From historical scientific drawings of insects to modern laser confocal microscopy and micro-CT, the arsenal of illustration and visualization methods at the entomologist’s disposal has grown. Details of morphology, patterns of gene expression during embryonic development, and internal structures of fossil insects can be revealed that were unimaginable to the 19th century entomologist.