Scientific Imaging and Visual Expression: A New and Powerful Approach to Learning, Teaching and Communicating Science

现代科学成果的传播频繁地使用图像和数字，然而，研究人员很少接受图像创造方面的培训，往往很少考虑图像的传播力。这是一项建议，旨在开发一种课程和方法，以新的使用成像的力量来传播科学，并为科学创造力提供一个新的渠道。这一过程和方法将改变科学和工程领域的本科生、教职员工和研究人员看待和想象他们工作的方式。这个项目是麻省理工学院埃杰顿中心的教职员工、麻省理工学院、哈佛大学和斯克里普斯研究所的研究科学家以及一位备受尊敬的科学摄影师/成像师之间不同寻常的合作。麻省理工学院的埃杰顿中心将开发主题和材料，拥有悠久的科学摄影传统，并在为该中心配备现代图像处理设备方面享有相当大的行业支持。在最初一年半的时间里，我们将在本科生的小型研讨会课程中开发一系列关于图像创作和视觉交流的主题的模块。研讨会中编写的材料和方法将成为暑期和第四学期编写的工作课程笔记/教师指南的基础。该指南将促进将这些方法输出到其他研究型大学。将举办工作坊，向教师介绍这些方法。新材料和新方法将：1)使学生在技术上精通摄影和数字成像，并鼓励他们清晰地思考数字和图像的产生；2)通过在成像中引入美学元素，教导未来的科学家更好地与非科学群体交流他们的工作结果；3)让本科生接触到当前的研究，让他们参与到实验室环境中获取信息和引人注目的图像的过程中；4)提供机会，让S通过成像过程理解科学；5)通过创造科学原理的视觉结构，向教职员工和学生介绍一种新的科学思维方式；以及6)介绍互联网的强大潜力，以创建成像科学和工程领域的双边合作(斯克里普斯和麻省理工学院)。

Modern communication of scientific results makes frequent use of images and figures, however, research scientists are rarely trained in the creation of images and frequently give little consideration to their communicative power. This is a proposal to develop a curriculum and methodology to make new use of the power of imaging to communicate science and to provide a new channel for scientific creativity. The process and the methods will change the way undergraduates, faculty and researchers in science and engineering see and image their work. The project is an unusual collaboration between the faculty and staff of the MIT Edgerton Center, research scientists at MIT, Harvard, and the Scripps Institute and a highly regarded photographer/imager of science. MIT's Edgerton Center, which will develop the subjects and materials, has a long tradition of scientific photography and enjoys considerable support of industry in equipping the Center with modern image processing equipment. A sequence of modules on various topics in image creation and visual communication will be developed in small undergraduate seminar classes during the first year and a half. The materials and methodologies developed in the seminars will become the basis of working course notes/teacher's guide to be prepared in the summers and during the fourth semester. The guide will facilitate the export of the methods to other research universities. Workshops will be offered to introduce the methods to teachers. The new materials and methodologies will: 1) make students technically proficient in photographic and digital imaging and encourage a clarity in thinking about production of figures and images; 2) teach future scientists to communicate better the results of their work to the non-scientific community by bringing an aesthetic component to their imaging; 3) expose undergraduates to current research, by involving them in the process of obtaining informational and compelling images in laboratory settings; 4) provide opportunitie s to understand science through the imaging process; 5) introduce faculty and students to a new way of thinking about science by the creation of visual constructions of scientific principles; and 6) introduce the powerful potential of the Internet to create a bi-coastal collaboration (Scripps and MIT) in imaging science and engineering.