The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) recently hosted an image competition to foster youth’s innovation consciousness and inspire their enthusiasm for scientific research.

The young CAS scientists captured the amazing images with keen perspectives and fertile imaginations and demonstrated the unique charm of scientific research. Let’s take a closer look at what they found.

Grand prize of the “Discover the beauty of science” image contest: Phoenix Nirvana.

 By Tian Dong, Computer Network Information Center, CAS

The work shows the longitudinal section of a black hole accretion disk. The center of the disk is the black hole. The lines in the picture represent the flow field around the black hole, while different colors indicate different speeds at the current point -- red is fast and blue is slow. The picture clearly shows the running state of matter on the disk. The image has some similarities to the tail of the phoenix. Large amounts of matter are fed to the black hole while a lot of X-rays are emitted from its two poles, which is a metaphor of matter rebirth. It tells us that the mysterious and vast space is constantly undergoing extinction and rebirth, and that as part of the universe, our science researchers and all humanity must be brave enough to challenge and fulfill ourselves, like the nirvana.

Experimental method: Display the distribution of energy and force fields interacting on the longitudinal section of the black hole accretion disk by means of a heat map and streamlining; the main technique was rendering an unsteady flow field on an irregular space grid.

Visual designing tool: GPVis scientific visualization software

Grand prize of the “Discovering the beauty of science” image contest: Fulfill the dream at the Three Gorges.

By Yuan Jiayi, Institute of Electrical Engineering, CAS

The photo captures the moment when Gu Guobiao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, stopped at the imported 700 megawatt water chiller generators in the left bank plant on a visit to the Three Gorges Hydropower Station. His philosophy is “Do not repeat research already done by foreign scientific research institutes; we must finish one or two things that go beyond foreign research”, and this is a scientific research concept in which he perseveres. He and his team have developed an evaporative cooling technique with completely independent intellectual property rights, effectively solving the problem of cooling large-scale electrical equipment. After nearly 50 years’ persistence and transmissions to several generations, two 700 megawatt evaporative cooling hydro generators were successively put into commercial operation at the Three Gorges Hydropower Station in December 2011 and July 2012. The operation capacity and safety reliability of the generators have completely surpassed those of the water chiller generators with the same capacity designed by internationally renowned hydropower enterprises. Evaporative cooling has replaced the previous water chilling technique, realizing his team’s dream of a creation that would last for half a century. The row of huge imported generators on the right makes a sharp contrast to the small figure of Gu Guobiao on the left in the photo. The academician's insistence on originality and his scientific confidence, as well as his perseverance in research, has become the core driving force taking the country from "Made in China" to "Created in China".

Imaging equipment: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Date of imaging: May 5, 2016

Image processing software: Adobe Lightroom 4

Grand prize of the “Discovering the beauty of science” image contest: Discovery.

By Huang Zhandong, Institute of Chemistry, CAS

This two-dimensional foam pattern was formed under the control of the micro-structure of the solid surface. The oxygen foam is produced by the catalytic reaction of a hydrogen peroxide solution with silver nanoparticles. The whole image is made with golden liquid film and looks like an eye, guiding us to explore scientific laws and discover the truth.

Name and model of the filming instrument: Nikon LV100ND Microscope, shot in a dark field.

No image processing software was used for the picture.

First prize of the “Discovering the beauty of science” image contest: Green ripples.

By An Zhiwu, Institute of Acoustics, CAS

The image shows the scattering of ultrasonic waves when meeting defects as they propagate through transparent solids. We can clearly see the location of the defects and the interactions between the defects and ultrasonic waves. Ultrasonic waves travel from the top to the bottom of the picture, and scatter in all directions like water waves, blocked by the defects in the solid. It tells us that our life journey is supposed to follow natural “physical laws”. However, in the journey of scientific research, we are blocked by all kinds of problems which break our inherent laws and allow our lives to spread and penetrate into every corner, and eventually we grow and expand.

Experimental method: Imaging the process of ultrasonic longitudinal wave’s incidence through the defects, using a dynamic photo-elastic imaging technique. This is the image after scattering.

Name and model of the sampling instrument: dynamic photo-elastic imaging system

First prize of the “Discovering the beauty of science” image contest:Sun flower.

By Wang Chenxin, Institute of Zoology, CAS

The image shows neurospheres differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells adhering to the cell wall and then exuding nerve cells (green in the picture) and astrocytes (red in the picture). It is superimposed with multi-layer scanning to reveal layered cell morphology. Vibrantly stretched cells embrace the neurosphere at the center, producing the image of the sun flower.

Experimental method: Apply human pluripotent stem cell directed neural differentiation technology, put neurospheres adhering to the cell wall through multichannel immunofluorescence staining, label neurons and astrocytes with different specific antibodies, and then use DAPI to dye the nucleus.

Name and model of the sampling instrument: Carl Zeiss laser confocal 780.

Image processing software: Adobe Photoshop CS6

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Source: Voice of Youth, Chinese Academy of Sciences