Scientific data can be as pleasing to the eye as a stunningly wrought sculpture or a delicate engraving — and once again the Princeton University Art of Science competition has produced some dazzlers.
The competition solicits images produced by Princeton staff and students during the course of scientific inquiry that have aesthetic merit. This year over 250 images were submitted. Here, we showcase some of our favorites.
In this image, the process of laser deposition is captured. In laser deposition, researchers vaporize a polyethylene oxide with focused lasers, allowing the resulting gas to deposit on a silicon wafer. This thin film then grows outward from a single nucleus.
Because the polymer is diffusing randomly onto the silicon, it grows out in surprising flare-like patterns, replicating the sun in a spot roughly the diameter of a single human hair.