RJ's Inspiration #010 ⚙️

RJ's Inspiration

weekly viz to inspire you too

⚙️ THE PILUS MACHINE
is an animation by Janet Iwasa and part of a 2016 AAAS Science paper (link). It visualizes the working hypothesis for how a bacteria moves by using a grappling-hook-like extension. Watch the short narrated film to its end, then keep reading.

I love so much about this animation. It blends data from many different imaging tools to construct one coherent explanation. Despite all of the jargon—and personally not being particularly interested in molecules or cells—I am mesmerized and understand the proposed mechanism. And while that explanation is wonderful, it is only the beginning. The animation is a working hypothesis: a tool to help scientists display, argue over, and refine our understanding.

At the very pointy tip of the craft, Iwasa must keyframe each step of many of her animations to create these new views. See more work at her site 1 μm illustration (link).

👁 VISUALISE
I met Janet Iwasa last week at VISUALISE, a conference at San Francisco's famous Exploratorium. It gathered museum educators, computer scientists, artists, and more to discuss visualization for informal science education. I look forward to sharing more inspiring work from this forum.

👉 ARE YOU ENJOYING THIS SERIES?
Please contact me to share your favorite viz, offer any advice for how this newsletter experiment can be improved, or say hello. -RJ