“[T]he visual communication of science is growing increasingly important.”

Today’s issue of the weekly science journal Nature includes an excellent article about the value of science illustration. You can read it here.

The author writes about specific collaborations between researchers and illustrators to illustrate the idea that the benefits of a good illustration are worth an investment of time and money:

Visually stunning representations that result from collaborations between scientists and artists can grab millions of online views, and attract a much wider audience than a non-illustrated paper, both of which are particularly useful for researchers whose grant applications or funding proposals require them to show a public-outreach component. They are also more likely to be written about and shared digitally, helping to raise the visibility of a scientist’s work, attract more students to a lab, boost career standing and improve chances of garnering funding. They can even inspire new experiments — or reveal gaps in knowledge.

One example cited in the article is my collaboration with scientist Jessica Linton; you can see the resulting illustration and read about it here.