Deadline to submit: June 9, 2023

 

Science2Art is a platform for regional scientists to display and describe their research through the visual arts. Each of these remarkable pieces tells a personal research story and poetically captures the fieldwork performed by the scientists and their teams. These images were submitted by scientists from Columbia, Missouri, to Manhattan, Kansas.

 

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Since 2014, BioNexus KC and the Science2Art program
has donated nearly $140,000 to STEAM programs in our region.

Check out previous Science2Art videos!

SOLD FOR: $600
Belowground Ambition

Seton Bachle, Kansas State University

15 X 15
Floating, black frame

This image shows a cross section of a grass root that was stained with biological dyes to determine structure under a confocal microscope. Structures moving away from the central circles are developing root hairs, which absorb water.

SOLD FOR: $900
Contamination Event

Kristen Solocinski, MRIGlobal

7 X 14
Floating, white frame

This image depicts cells growing in dishes. Sometimes there is growth of unwanted visitors, in this case, mold. Mold can ruin an experience by sucking up nutrients needed for cells, but it also has a complicated beauty of the mycelial network. This image was taken during a study of viruses and viral diseases.

SOLD FOR: $1,000
Death of a Blood Vessel

Charles Norton, University of Missouri

12 X 15
Floating, black frame

This image labels the nuclei of live (blue) and dead (yellow) cells in a blood vessel from the brain. Specifically, this artery was treated with compound which selectively kills the cells lining the interior of the blood vessel (horizontal nuclei), while leaving the surrounding smooth muscle cells (vertical nuclei) healthy. This research is used to identify how blood vessels are damaged during stroke.

SOLD FOR: $341
Flower-like Catalysts

Shuo Han, University of Missouri Kansas City

12 X 10
Floating, white frame

This is an image of a scanning electron micrograph that shows a chemical reaction between polydopamine and a gold nanoparticle on the surface of a carbon fiber, producing a flower-like product. The image aids in exploring novel catalysts that help with synthesizing biofuel by reducing CO2 in a bio-electrochemical system. Here, dopamine, a type of neurotransmitter and hormone, donates hydrogen-bonded motifs on the surface of the flower-like composites, acting as the main functional group to catalyze the reduction of CO2. Additionally, this flower-like composite facilitates the development of nanoscale catalysts. It helps give the nanoscale catalysts the correct preferred orientation to mitigate greenhouse effects, making it more environment friendly.

SOLD FOR: $1,100
Fossil Spider Pop Art

Matt Downen, University of Kansas

12 X 15
Floating, black frame

This is a 22.5 million year old fossil spider from an ancient lake deposit in Aix-en-Provence, France. The fossil is imaged as a series of elemental maps that show its chemistry. The spider is made of carbon, sulfur, and phosphorus (oranges, yellows, greens). The surrounding rock is made of silica, calcium, and clays (blues, purples, reds, pinks). This piece is a play on the iconic “Marilyn” series by Andy Warhol.

SOLD FOR: $3,000
Heart Going Bananas

Jessica Cayton, University of Missouri

10 X 30
Floating, black frame

This image was “painted” by ~50 different muscle cells within the right atria of an aged mouse heart using high-speed, high-resolution fluorescence calcium imaging. The heart was under hypokalemic (low potassium) conditions, which is known to trigger cardiac arrhythmia in patients. Different populations of cells were given distinct colors (yellow, cyan, and green), and using a “pseudo-linescan” approach the populations of heart cells “painted” the image with time via their calcium signaling events. The best way to prevent arrhythmias triggered by low potassium is to supplement potassium. While this artist recommends you have your cardiologist monitor and correct potassium levels carefully, bananas are also an excellent source of dietary potassium.

SOLD FOR: $1,000
MitoTimer

Heather Wilkins, University of Kansas Medical Center

12 X 15
Floating, black frame

The image shows mitochondria of young and old age. The young mitochondria are green and the old mitochondria are red. The blue shows the DNA of the cell, or the nucleus. The cells are neurons derived from adult stem cells. Images like these allow us to study how mitochondria age. This research is used to study Alzheimer’s Disease.

SOLD FOR: $800
Regeneration as a Flower Garden

A.J. Mellott, Ronawk & Amy Hayes, Olathe North High School

12 X 6.75
Floating, black frame

This image is of  cells that are found in the top layer of skin. These cells are important for establishing a water-tight barrier that protect our internal tissues and organs from the external environment. Analyzing these features are important, as these features provide insights to the overall health of the cells and their ability to regenerate. Tissue engineering is used to develop technologies that accelerate research to overcome cancer, diseases, and injuries through cellular regeneration. Understanding the health and behavior of the cells in the top layer of the skin allows researchers to develop new ways to improve wound healing and support the clinicians that treat patients.

SOLD FOR: $475
Salt of the Earth

McKenzie Summerfield, MRIGlobal

12 X 15
Floating, white frame

This is a scanning electron microscopic image of a metal salt to identify impurities. Researchers periodically perform elemental analysis using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to identify the elemental impurities in the compound. This image was taken during one of those analyses.

SOLD FOR: $1,000
Starry (Lymph) Node

David Fajgenbaum, University of Pennsylvania

8 X 28
Floating, white frame

This image depicts a section of lymph node from 3 individuals: a patient with idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease (iMCD), a rare and deadly hematologic disorder, a patient with a sentinel lymph node (control), and a patient with a reactive lymph node (control). Each lymph node was stained for phospho(p)4EBP1, a well-established readout for mTOR expression. The purpose of this research was to investigate mTOR signaling in tissue from iMCD patients and controls. The p4EBP1 results demonstrate that mTOR activation is increased in iMCD relative to control and support mTOR inhibition as a therapeutic target in iMCD.

SOLD FOR: $1,500
Storm Coming: Calcium Waves in the Heart

Vivian Onyali, University of Missouri

10 X 30
Front mounted, black frame

This image was created from high-speed, high-resolution fluorescence imaging of calcium within a heart muscle cell. The muscle cell is exhibiting what cardiac biophysicists call “calcium waves,” which are calcium signaling events that lead to cardiac arrhythmia. To make the color in the image, three different parts of the cell were given a different color (dark blue, cyan, and green), and using a “pseudo-linescan” approach the heart cell essentially “painted” its own image with time. During image processing, subtle differences in color patterns created the smaller wavelets within the larger waves.

SOLD FOR: $1,300
Strength & Beauty

Timothy Cox, University of Missouri Kansas City

14 X 10
Black frame to edge

This particular image was generated from a scan of a cranial bone from a rare, unidentified fish species. The three dimensional rendering shows the exceptional beauty and symmetry, yet also strength, of the cranial bone as it serves its role in protecting the brain. This approach is essentially the same as a CAT scan which is used for humans in the clinic. A key component of research into the causes of, and potential interventional therapies for, facial birth defects is the assessment of the cranium and facial skeleton in model organisms that mimic the defects seen in humans.

SOLD FOR: $650
The Duck is Real

Alec Jorns, MRIGlobal

12 X 15
Floating, wood frame

The image is of an oil-water emulsion with multi-color droplets made using a microfluidic chip. The microfluidic system is being used to advance technology in genomics, chemistry, and medicine.

SOLD FOR: $840
The Start of the Season

Constanza Mackrey, Kansas State University

15 X 15
Floating, black frame

There is nothing more exciting than starting the field season. This picture was taken during a planting day of a new experiment, and we can see the planter in the field.