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The Design of Science: 10 Great Research Graphics

Image: Landgraf et al./PLoS One

Not to be confused with those globular cluster images I constantly post about, these are actually their tinier conscious dancing counterparts, the bees. Part of Wired’s ‘10 Great Research Graphics’ photoset:

Figures and graphs are an essential part of scientific literature, but few will ever be noticed by graphic artists or information design gurus.

They’re uncelebrated and utilitarian, a means to an end — but some, however, stand out. Though lacking in post-production polish, they convey complex messages with elegance and directness. They might even be considered the scientific world’s folk art.

The Honeybee Dance

When foraging honeybees return with news of food, they perform a complicated series of movements and steps that convey its exact location to their hivemates. Called the waggle dance, it’s a marvel of animal communication, and after decades of study scientists are still learning its intricacies.

The image above represents the combined motions of individual bees in 742 waggle dances; it was assembled by computer scientists who hope to design honeybee-inspired robots.

(via ikenbot)