Science Images of 2022
nature.com
nature.com
* I really like all of the. As just "photographs", they seem all very pretty, detailed, some even awe-inspiring, to me.
* Is it just me (I'm not in any way a photography guy), or are so many of these photos extremely over-edited with extra color to make them more appealing? EDIT: The visible-light photos
* Veritasium did an amazing video on how the black hole image was made. It honestly made radio astronomy "click" for me, finally after many years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1bSDnuIPbo
* Scrolling through that gave off a strong ex-Apple web developer smell. Why add such complex scrolling behavior where it isn't necessary?
* I appreciate the message and everything, and it's a fantastic and indeed hypnotic image, but what does the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine have anything, in particular, to do with science? Yes some Ukrainian scientists have been displaced. Some scientific institutions and faculties too, but the image isn't even about that. Feels a bit like they could have done their "send our best regards" bit in a better way, IMHO. Am I being a bit overly pedantic/negative here? I don't know...
Re. them being over-edited - I wonder if the reason for that is because many of those would not have any colours in them if it wasn't for the editing (because they were taken using X-rays for example).
And yes, I am a bit surprised by some of the photos, particularly towards the end. I've never been involved in the science publishing scene, so to me it just looks...strange.
Not to mention how ignored so many other human tragedies that happened away from the West have been.
Probably not what the author had in mind, but two reasons I can think of off the top of my head:
- science has played a pivotal role in the development of the various weapons humans use to kill each other
- had humanity decided to invest more of its resources in "the humanities" instead of the hard sciences, perhaps we wouldn't still be behaving like this in 2022, or at least have higher quality arguments about such matters
Personally, and it's a rather flimsily held opinion of mine so I'm open to challenges, but I feel like it's quite the opposite. Isn't it the non-humanitarian things that have brought together unlikely sides? At the height of the cold war, Americans and Russians still visited each other's countries for Chess championships, but not much else, right? My history knowledge isn't that great :P
Fair enough, but also interesting is:
- barring access to a counterfactual reality machine, the truth of the matter is unknown
- the mind contains processes for generating virtual counter-factual realities, and these simulations are so convincing that it is easy to mistake them for the real thing (which is unknown)
It seems highly unlikely that teaching these things in school would not increase awareness of them, though whether it would also have an effect on susceptibility is another matter. I believe that it would improve that also at least somewhat, and perhaps substantially with practice.
> Isn't it the non-humanitarian things that have brought together unlikely sides? At the height of the cold war, Americans and Russians still visited each other's countries for Chess championships
To me, this is an example of the humanities in action.
Nothing. The page starts with “ The best science images of 2022 […] Images selected by Nature’s visuals team, text by Emma Stoye and Nisha Gaind”
Halfway through, there’s a paragraph
“A personal view of the news
In compiling this year’s collection of striking science images, Nature’s media and news editors identified a photograph that said something special to them. Here is their take on the past 12 months.”
So, there are two groups of photos:
- Science images that Nature’s editors find striking.
- Images in general that said something special to Nature’s editors.
I think they should have made that clearer, for example by moving them to separate web pages.
It endlessly frustrates me that web designers have decided that anything going on outside the very center of an image doesn't matter.
/s