The Beauty of Microfluidics

The journal Lab on a Chip has a new Web site for researchers to share their artistic "miniaturization/micro/nanofluidics" related pictures. "I am willing to bet that your hard drive contains at least one gorgeous image that will make me catch my breath. In fact, I contend that all our hard drives together contain more art than the Louvre and all the Guggenheims could possibly house, and it would be a shame if it remained in cyber-darkness," writes the University of Washington's Albert Folch and new Lab on a Chip Art Editor, in introducing the site. He adds that the site has a serious side, to show that science and art are compatible. "I know very few scientists that do not have a deep appreciation for painting and music, and fewer artists that do not feel a fascination for scientific phenomena," he says. Among the images already uploaded to the Flickr page are ones called "van Gogh's cells," "Paul Klee's autopsy," and "Microfluidic Butterfly."