Designers Martin Krzywinski and Barbara Jeannie Hunnicutt provide a peek behind the scenes, and explain how they developed a data visualization based on bacterial genome information derived from dust.
This is an absolutely fascinating look behind the scenes at the production of an infographic for a Scientific American article on “the Secret Life in Household Dust”. The article was based largely on a paper from Barberán et al on “The ecology of microscopic life in house dust“.
This blog post by the designers (Martin Krzywinski and Barbara Jeannie Hunnicutt) who made the infographic takes us through the thought and work in the history of the development of the final infographic. It is definitely worth a read for anyone interested in scientific communication or in the intersection of science and art and design.
Want to know morea about dust…. go to a whole conference on dust — DUST 2016 – 2nd International Conference on Atmospheric Particles, 12-17 June 2016, Calané Conference Center, Nova Yardinia Resort, Castellaneta Marina, Italy:
or present a paper there… Call for Abstracts @ DUST2016 – Deadline is approaching: 16th December! check it out at http://www.dust2016.org/
Also, read an older book on dust: “The Secret Life of Dust”
https://books.google.com/books?id=WifbAAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s
“Dust is everywhere, both on planet Earth and throughout the cosmos”
and even more…. dust is not just microbes, but also chemicals from our modern lives…
Synopsis of The Secret Life of Dust –
http://www.alternet.org/story/21562/the_secret_life_of_dust
The first U.S. study to test chemicals in household dust found a toxic cocktail in our homes, made of hazardous chemicals emitted from commonly used products.