SCS Science Image Challenge 2015 Entries | School of Chemical Sciences

2015 SCS Science Image Challenge Winner

Nitya Satyavolu - Lu Group
Department of Chemistry

Palladium Supercrystals

SEM image of supercrystals formed by palladium nano-cuboctahedron monomers. These crystals are formed by the self-assembly of the monomers due to the slow diffusion of surfactant (cetrimonium chloride) into a concentrated colloidal solution of palladium nano-cuboctahedron.The supercrystals formed are highly dependent on the shape of the monomer nanoparticle used.

Finalist

Elizabeth Horstman and Yifu Zhang - Ying Diao Group
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Beauty in the Curve

Curved aspirin crystallites are observed in this cross polarized optical micrograph. The curvature in the crystallites is observed when a two-step mechanism of solution deposition and subsequent spherulite growth occurs during solution printing on an SiO₂ wafer.

Finalist

Joseph Courtney - Rienstra Lab Group
Department of Chemistry

COMPASS: Navigating the Protein Landscape

NMR spectroscopy is a powerful technique for determining protein structures that traditionally requires months of data analysis. COMPASS replaces manual data analysis with a computer vision-inspired algorithm that identifies the unique structure using a single spectrum. This artistic representation depicts COMPASS revealing the correct fold in the dark structural landscape.

Finalist

Mike Lambrecht - Hergenrother Group
Department of Chemistry

Rapid Apoptosis in Zebrafish

Apoptotic cell death in transgenic YFP zebrafish embryos using an anti-cancer small molecule.

Finalist

Boon Chong Goh - Department of Physics, Beckman Institute, and Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group

Imperfect intruder

An immature retrovirus has a near-spherical capsid with plenty of structural defects and is therefore non-infectious. The blood cells at the background illustrate the viruses (blue dots) successful entered the cells but failed to hijack the cell’s machinery. The figure of the retrovirus was produced using VMD (Visual Molecular Dynamics).