The Yale Science Diplomats at Yale University have been using our S.P.A.R.K. online course to help train their members for the “Flipped Science Fair.” At the Flipped Science Fair, Yale researchers present their work to middle schoolers who both learn from the experience and get to judge the researchers’ posters. In this blog post, Yale researcher Michael Bond shares his experiences working with our S.P.A.R.K. course and shows how he’s already putting our 5 strategies for the visual communication of science into action for the Flipped Science Fair. The remainder of this post was written by Yale ..read more

In this post, we interview Christoph Kuehne PhD. Christoph is a Biomedical Animator with a research background in electron microscopy. Read the interview below to learn all about Christoph’s exciting career path and how he transitioned from research to animation. What got you interested in science and structural biology in particular? My interest in science and biology probably comes from my parents, who both worked in scientific fields. Random examples: As a child, I had a microscope, or my father used agar plates to show the effect of handwashing. I also enjoyed taking things apart to see h ..read more

In this special post, we interview Patricia Galipeau. Patricia is a Genomics Research Manager in the Reid Laboratory at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The Reid Lab focuses on Barrett’s Esophagus, a condition in which special kinds of cells line the esophagus and can develop into esophageal adenocarcinoma. Prior to working in the Reid Lab, Patricia worked as a research technician at the University of Washington where she also received her Bachelor of Science degree in molecular biology. Patricia learned about our S.P.A.R.K. online course when she was searching for a Scientific Illustr ..read more

*Note* This post is part of our ongoing series “Misconceptions in the visual communication of science.” You can find other posts in the series here. As a team of scientists and scientific illustrators, we’ve worked alongside many researchers who try their very hardest to communicate through pictures. Yet, despite best intentions, we often see common misconceptions that undermine the effectiveness of the pictures we encounter. We cover one particularly powerful misconception in this post and will cover more in future posts. Misconception: I need to know how to draw in order to make an effective ..read more

As a team of scientists and scientific illustrators, we’ve worked alongside many researchers who try their very hardest to communicate through visuals. Yet, despite best intentions, we often see common misconceptions that undermine the effectiveness of the visuals we encounter. We cover 3 common misconceptions here, and we’ll cover more in future posts. We work through strategies to overcome these misconceptions and make more effective visuals in our S.P.A.R.K. online course so be sure to check it out! Misconception 1: The more complex my visuals are, the smarter I’ll look Researchers often wa ..read more

This post was contributed by Picture as Portal® cofounder, Tami Tolpa. Tami has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Medical Illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Greetings from Seattle, Washington! By now, we’ve all seen many pictures of the novel coronavirus, and that includes visual communications about how to protect ourselves from infection. The slide below was used in a May 12th press conference by Washington Governor Jay Inslee, as he launched his statewide contact tracing initiative. I took a snapshot of the slide with my phone because I knew I’d want to return ..read more

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This post was contributed by Picture as Portal® cofounder, Betsy Palay. Betsy is a Certified Medical Illustrator and science communicator. She is a founder, former president, and previous creative director of Artemis Creative, Inc. She was president of the Association of Medical Illustrators from 2009 – 2010. Learn more about Betsy at BetsyPalay.com. Around 1440, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press and changed the world. Words—and thus information and ideas—could now be easily duplicated and distributed by the thousands. Printing technology caused a literacy revolution around the gl ..read more

When I (Tyler Ford, Science Communications Director at Picture as Portal) used to work at the lab bench, I was most excited by the process of analyzing and presenting data. In the early days of my research, I would spend hours putting together what I thought were perfect figures. Upon presenting them to my supportive lab mates, they’d often stare blankly. Glancing over their faces in horror, I’d think, “Is my work really that boring?!?” Yet, being a member of a supportive lab, I was unafraid to ask my lab mates point blank how they really felt. Often, I’d come to realize that they just didn’t ..read more

Participants in the S.P.A.R.K. course do amazing work. They show that, no matter your level of artistic talent, you can apply the S.P.A.R.K. principles to create useful and informative visuals.  In our “case studies” blog posts you’ll find examples of pictures created following the S.P.A.R.K. principles. These will come both from the course instructors and participants. If you’d like to have your work featured in a “case study” please reach out to pictureasportal@gmail.com. Enjoy! Take our S.P.A.R.K. course and quickly learn practical strategies for excellent visual communication Circular ..read more