Freelance illustrator Colleen Champ produced her own version of the scene using micrographs by photomicrographer Dennis Kunkel. The goal was to demonstrate the fantastic nature of reality by arranging the actual images in fanciful ways, Champ says: "You cannot create anything yourself that hasn't already been created in nature."

She used Photoshop to transform three beetles into the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and the sleepy Dormouse. They sip tea at a table made of butterfly wings, set in a field of crystallized vitamin C while aphids fly overhead. A key beneath the main illustration identifies the source of each image, including the mold spores that make up the vast underground.

Kunkel says the work is a fruitful partnership between science and art: "She's taken images from the minute world and put them together in such a way as to make them really compelling, exciting, and funny to look at." Kunkel plans to develop a series of children's books based on Champ's images.

The interplay between fact and fancy also impressed the judges, who used the words "innovative" and "delightful" to describe the piece.

Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge

Visuals can communicate research results and scientific phenomena in ways that words cannot. That's why NSF cosponsors this international contest to recognize outstanding achievements in this area.

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/index.jsp?id=win2008