Sightings

"InfoVis and SciVis face off" is how the American Scientist homepage teases for my latest Sightings column. While the comparison between information visualization (InfoVis) and scientific visualization (SciVis) is part of the discussion, I am also describing work by my colleague Anthony Fodor (who works in bioinformatics) to demonstrate the usefulness of InfoVis in science.

Venn diagrams are a strange mix of structure and data visualization. In my latest Sightings column (PDF) for American Scientist, I use the example of a visualization challenge from last year to discuss different ways to show the same data about diagnosis techniques for autism in young children. This also sparked the launch of a new site feature: Ask Eagereyes.

Proteins are inherently three-dimensional, complex structures. To understand them, we need to simplify them to focus their main structural components. Jane Richardson has played a key role in the visual language that we use today when talking about proteins: ribbons and spirals. I interviewed her recently for the Sightings column in American Scientist.

How do bats fly? What are the aerodynamic conditions around their wings? And how do you visualize all that? I did a short interview with David Laidlaw (PDF), who has collaborated with physicists, biologists, fluid mechanics experts, and others, to create a poster that won last year's NSF Visualization Challenge. The interview was done for American Scientist's Sightings column, which I have been invited to write.