Kelly Krause, Creative Director of the Nature and Nature journals at Springer Nature, shared on LinkedIn:
“This week Nature celebrates the craft of scientific illustration, the ultimate anti-slop.
Scientific illustrations may be beautiful and awe-inspiring, but ultimately what makes them ‘scientific’ is that they are based on data and evidence. They are accurate, verifiable and attributable, blending artistic skill with expert knowledge and human judgement. Without them, how would we visualize the lost world of dinosaurs, or ‘see’ our place in the universe?
The cover image, by Nature’s own Richard Tibbitts (of Gray’s Anatomy fame), captures the essential creative journey, showing stages of an enduring design process: close observation, data collection and expert rendering. It reflects the qualities that have made scientific illustration an essential tool for discovery and communication for centuries.
In fact, Nature itself was initially launched as ’A Weekly ‘Illustrated’ Journal of Science’ in 1869. Visual content has long been at the heart of how we learn new ideas – a point well made in our accompanying editorial examining the role of Nature’s covers and how they evolved through the years to tell the story of research.
Also in the issue is an absorbing, highly visual conversation with five prolific scientific illustrators, examining the potential effect of artificial intelligence on this crucial aid to understanding. We learn about their practice, common misconceptions of the field, and probe the limits of AI.
Scientific illustrators out there – we stand on your shoulders! In that spirit, I’m tagging a small handful of amazing artists I’ve worked with through the years, and if you’re feeling the same love, please pass this on and tag other fantastic creators of scientific visuals.”
To which Diana Romero, Chief Editor at Nature Portfolio, added:
“I’ve worked with many amazing artists over the years and I like how they each have a very personal style. I will probably forget some of them or don’t have them as contacts, apologies!”
Other articles about Nature on OncoDaily.
