The winners: Cool Science Images 2019

Ten images and two videos by University of Wisconsin–Madison students, faculty and staff have been named winners of the 2019 Cool Science Image Contest.

A panel of eight experienced artists and scientists judged the scientific content and aesthetic and creative qualities of 95 images and videos entered in the ninth annual competition.

“To be able to see things from such a different perspective — so close to the hairs on the leg of an insect, or cells migrating, or all the colors that shine from a mineral if you crack the rock open — can be such a powerful way to understand things that may be mysterious if you’re not working in a lab,” says Kara Rogers, a contest judge and senior editor, biomedical sciences, for Encyclopaedia Britannica. “There are a lot of those surprises, things that make you sit up and say, ‘That’s amazing,’ in the submissions this year.”

The winners — along with a slideshow of all entries — will be on exhibit from Sept. 16 to Dec. 13 in the McPherson Eye Research Institute’s Mandelbaum & Albert Family Vision Gallery on the ninth floor of the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research, 1111 Highland Ave. The exhibition opens with a public reception from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 16. In addition to showing off the striking images of oft-hidden features of the natural world, the reception celebrates five years of art and science exhibits at the gallery.

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