Pathways of nerve fibres in the brain of a young healthy adult (viewed from behind). Different parts of the brain communicate with each other through these nerve fibres, which are colour-coded here. Fibres connecting the left and right hemispheres are red, fibres travelling up and down connecting the brain and spinal cord are blue, and fibres running front to back are green. The width of this brain is 16.5 cm.
A newborn baby receives light therapy in the Starlight Neonatal Unit at Barnet Hospital in London. This baby was born prematurely and has jaundice, a common condition where waste from the breakdown of red blood cells builds up in the blood, causing the skin and eyes to turn yellow. This waste, bilirubin, is normally removed by the liver, but in newborn babies the liver is not yet fully developed so cannot always do this efficiently. In a small number of cases jaundice may be a sign of an underlying health problem. This baby is being treated in a special incubator and lies under an ultraviolet light with their eyes covered.
The Wellcome Trust, a charitable organization known among other things for its project to host free medical and scientific images for the world to use, has just announced the winners of its Wellcome Image Awards 2016. The competition aims to bring to the forefront beautiful imagery and to celebrate its connection to science, medicine, and life.
All the photos, scans, and micrographs come from the past year’s additions to the Wellcome Images library and the judges consist of medical professionals, scientists, and scientific communication experts.
Here are some of the judges commenting on the images, the competition, and the power of beauty in science:
