From microgalaxies to micro-oceans to Warhol's cellular images: the art in science of MicroTAS 2015

The 19th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences held in Gyeongju, South Korea on October 2015 witnessed the 8th Art in Science award contest (Fig. 1). This annual competition was sponsored by Lab on a Chip (LOC) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Almost 20 images were submitted to the competition. The winner of the 2015 Art in Science award was Matteo Cornaglia from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, for the image titled Through Warhol's Eyepiece, featured on the cover of this issue (Fig. 2). The image presents a multi-dimensional micrograph of 20 C. elegans embryos isolated from an on-chip worm culture into dedicated micro-incubators.¹ Each color corresponds to a different time slice of the same population during the process of embryogenesis. The image resembles art from Andy Warhol and it is described by the artist as taken by an “Andy Warhol microscope, equipped with a 63× oil immersion objective and a pop art optical filter.”

Fig. 1 Matteo Cornaglia (center) from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) winner of the MicroTAS 2015 Art in Science award receives the award certificate during The 19th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences award ceremony session in Gyeongju, South Korea. The award was presented by Darwin Reyes (left) from NIST and Sarah Ruthven (right) from LOC/The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Fig. 2 Image winner of the MicroTAS 2015 Art in Science award titled Through Warhol's Eyepiece by Matteo Cornaglia of the Laboratory of Microsystems, EPFL.

Combining art and science is nothing new and in past centuries great minds—as for example, Da Vinci—showed how scientific ideas can inspire and lead to great pieces of art. However, in this day and age the race to have successful careers requires focusing on our field of specialty forcing us, on many occasions, to choose between areas that could be considered far apart from each other, as is the case between the arts and the sciences. Merging art and science can not only help us exercise both sides of our brains, but also allow us to have an overall balanced life. One greatness of the universe we live in is that it is full of pieces of art that can range from celestial bodies “frozen” in telescopic images, to microscopic ones hiding in micrographs. However, though many of these artworks are lurking in the visualizations made possible through scientific tools, they also require a mind capable of recognizing that there could be more to our experiments than meets the eye. For eight years, the MicroTAS Art in Science award has been recognizing those minds in our field that are capable of seeing art where others don't.

This year the selection committee was comprised of Prof. Albert Folch from the University of Washington, Sarah Ruthven from LOC/The Royal Society of Chemistry and Darwin Reyes from NIST. The criteria used to select the top three images were their originality, scientific merit, visual appeal, and suitability for a Lab on a Chip front cover. This year was not an exception in terms of how difficult it was to select the top contenders, and ultimately the winner. The judges decided on the top three contenders by considering the criteria mentioned above and by discussing until finally arriving at a consensus. To select the winner the judges then took a final vote, narrowing the top three to the top one. The top two runner-ups for the 2015 MicroTAS Art in Science award are:

1st runner up – Reflections of Micro-ocean Escaping by Maoxiang Guo of KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 The image titled Reflections of Micro-ocean Escaping was the 1st runner-up and was submitted by Maoxiang Guo of KTH Royal Institute of Technology. This image illustrates the expansion due to heating of a nanoliter-scale volume of liquid encapsulated in a polymer microwell covered with a gold film. The expansion creates a bulge in the center and ripples in the surrounding area of the gold film.

2nd runner up – Microparticle Microgalaxy by Ghulam Destgeer of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4 The 2nd runner-up titled Microparticle Microgalaxy was submitted by Ghulam Destgeer of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST. This image shows microparticles of larger diameter concentrated under the effect of acoustic waves, whereas the smaller ones remain scattered in the background. They resemble celestial bodies in a galaxy, hence the title.

Acknowledgements

The Art in Science award is sponsored and supported by MicroTAS, the Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society (CBMS), the Lab on a Chip journal, and NIST. The award consists of a monetary prize ($2500), an award certificate, and the coveted front cover of Lab on a Chip. Please check the MicroTAS 2016 conference website for further details regarding the submission of images for the next MicroTAS Conference in Dublin, Ireland.

References

1. M. Cornaglia, L. Mouchiroud, A. Marette, S. Narasimhan, T. Lehnert, V. Jovaisaite, J. Auwerx and M. A. M. Gijs, Multi-Dimensional Imaging and Phenotyping of C. Elegans Embryos Via an Automated Microfluidic Device, MicroTAS, 2015, 686–688.

Footnote

† Any opinions or views expressed in the following article are entirely those of the author and do not represent the views of the journal, Lab on a Chip, or The Royal Society of Chemistry.

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