MBL Research Featured in UChicago “Science as Art” Contest

"Desert Landscape on a Salt Crystal," by Loretta Roberson, Michael Shribak, and Navahni (grade 11) was one of the MBL submissions to the UChicago "Science as Art" competition.

"Desert landscape in salt crystals" by Loretta Roberson, Michael Shribak, Navahni (grade 11) was one of the submissions to the 2022 UChicago "Science as Art" competition.

By Emily Greenhalgh April 14, 2022

From neurons to nanoparticles, more than 100 images were submitted for the inaugural "Science as Art" contest from The University of Chicago. The goal of the contest was to highlight images of innovative scientific research from the greater UChicago community, including the Marine Biological Laboratory.

"Together, these images show the pursuit of knowledge in a new light, underscoring the beauty of intellectual exploration," said a UChicago news story announcing the winners.

The gallery includes MBL submissions from Zoe Cardon, Michael Shribak, Loretta Roberson, Mayra Sánchez-García, Maureen Conte, Rut Pedrosa Pàmies, JC Weber, and Will Ramos.

Explore some of the submissions from MBL scientists and researchers below:

"Brain Waves" by William Ramos, Matthew Parent, Stephanie Rudolph - "Cerebellum of an adult mouse in which Purkinje cells are labeled with tdTomato. The sample was prepared by Stephanie Rudolph and imaged by Matthew Parent on a custom designed/built line scan confocal system at the Marine Biological Laboratory in the Kumar Lab. William Ramos then created a max intensity projection from 20 slices in the 3D volume and processed further to produce this image. The blue in the folia shows where Purkinje cell somas are while the long golden strands show where their axons form bundles that lead to the cerebellar nuclei."

"Desert landscape in salt crystals" by Loretta Roberson, Michael Shribak, Navahni grade 11 - The picture was taken with the polychromatic polscope in collaboration with Michael Shribak (www.nature.com/articles/srep17340) during a high school intensive training course on corals in a changing world led by Dr. Loretta Roberson. The sample was made by dehydrating a drop of seawater from the Vineyard Sound in Woods Hole, MA.

"dinosaur bone" by Michael Shribak — "Dinosaur bone" by Michael Shribak - A dinosaur bone in transmitted light under polychromatic polarization microscope (www.nature.com/articles/srep17340)). We used a 4x objective lens and illuminating white polarized light with a spectral fan of polarization ellipses. The picture shows real colors, as it is seen by naked eye. Image size is 2.1mm

"Autofluorescence Montastraea cavernosa" by Mayra Sánchez-García - You are looking at the coral Montastraea cavernosa, under an epifluorescence microscope with a green fluorescent protein (GFP) filter. This technique allows us to see the autofluorescence, the natural emission of light of the coral tissue, generated by a protein that exhibits green fluorescence under blue or UV light.

"Autofluorescence Montastraea cavernosa" by Mayra Sanchez - You are looking at a colony of the Northern cup coral, Astrangia poculata, this image was taken using bright field microscopy. The coral is in ir aposymbiotic state, which means that it has lost the microalgae that commonly lives in its tissue. This loss can happen naturally due to low light or temperature changes.

"Sea Butterfly of Peace" by Maureen Conte, Rut Pedrosa Pàmies, JC Weber | Shell of the pteropod (sea butterfly) Peracle tricantha collected at 500m by a sediment trap on the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP) mooring in the deep Sargasso Sea

"Birefringent Wollaston prism" by Michael Shribak - Birefringent Wollaston prism in transmitted light under polychromatic polarizing microscope (www.nature.com/articles/srep17340). The picture shows real colors, as it is seen by naked eye. Blue and yellow regions have the orthogonal direction of the slow axis. The prism is colorless in a regular polarizing microscope.

"Lichens of the Cape Cod Dunes" by Zoe Cardon - We study extraordinary desiccation tolerance among green micro-algae, most of them freeliving in desert soil crusts, but some of them living in symbiotic relationships with fungi in lichens. Cape Cod has an abundance of diverse lichens on trees, rocks, signs, fences, and even on sands at the Cape Cod National Seashore. The lichens shown in this photograph are growing on sand, near Marconi Station and the ocean in Wellfleet, MA. This close-up photograph shows the beautiful details of shape, size, and texture in this miniature lichen "forest." Each branch is only a few millimeters in size; the details of texture and spikes so beautiful in the photograph are barely visible to the naked eye. As part of a National Science Foundation project focused on desiccation tolerance in green algae, we developed a "lesson plan" for middle school students about lichens -- the nature of the symbiosis, how to learn to recognize crustose vs. foliose vs. fruticose lichens, and how to recognize the most common lichens on Cape Cod. This photograph was taken as part of that NSF-funded project.

"babysquid" by Michael Shribak — "Baby Squid" by Michael Shribak - A live baby squid in transmitted light under polychromatic polarization microscope (www.nature.com/articles/srep17340). The picture shows real colors, as it is seen by naked eye.

MBL_OFP Carnival of the Deep - Oceanic Flux Program — "Carnival of the Deep" by Maureen Conte, Rut Pedrosa Pàmies, and JC Weber of the Oceanic Flux Program - Goose barnacles attached to a sinking Sargassum air bladder collected at 1500m by a sediment trap on the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP) mooring in the deep Sargasso Sea.

"Scream from the Deep" by Maureen Conte, Rut Pedrosa Pàmies, JC Weber of the Oceanic Flux Program - "Bryozoan epiphytes on a sinking Sargassum air bladder collected at 3200m by a sediment trap on the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP) mooring in the deep Sargasso Sea... or is it the trapped soul of a lost pirate?!"

See a Flickr Gallery of all of the "Science as Art" submissions Read the UChicago News Story