The natural world is extraordinarily beautiful as it exists, without human intervention, art without artifact. Capturing such images often occurs in the process of scientific research. For the second year running, Princeton University has mounted an exhibition called "Art of Science," which consists of 56 images, videos, and sounds that were "produced in the course of
research or incorporating tools and concepts from science." The curators explain:
The practices of science and
art both involve the single-minded pursuit of those moments of discovery
when what one perceives suddenly becomes more than the sum of its parts.
Each piece in this exhibition is, in its own way, a record of such a
moment. They range from the image that validates years of research, to the
epiphany of beauty in the trash after a long day at the lab, to a
painter's meditation on the meaning of biological life.
There are many gorgeous images in the exhibition. Some were of course tweaked or enhanced to clarify the information they contain, and in the process the beauty is often enhanced as well.

You can view them all by beginning with the first-prize image, "
Mitosis," by Jennifer Rea, then scrolling through with
Next links at the top of the page. I have chosen my three favorites. (Click on the thumbnails for larger versions.)
The first is a particularly fine photo of the Orion Nebula by Robert J. Vanderbei. He points out:
The
nebula consists mostly of hydrogen gas that is slowly collapsing under
the influence of gravity. The collapsing balls of gas eventually become
massive enough that their own crushing density becomes sufficiently
great to cause the hydrogen to fuse into helium in a massive nuclear
fusion reaction that can run for billions of years. In this way, a star
is born.
The
second is an image of a seahorse's anatomy, beautifully Photoshopped by Elina Mer to illustrate its vertebral column. She adds:
While most fish have scales, seahorses have bony plates over which a
thin layer of skin is stretched. Seahorses are vertebrates and thus
have a vertebral column that runs through the center of their body and
the center of their prehensile tail.
The third is a satellite image of central Saudi Arabia, showing flourishing alfalfa and wheat fields deep in the desert. David Potere calls it "Desert Jewels":
The Saudis manage to make the desert bloom by pumping
fossil water from deep below the Earth’s surface. A well at the center
of each of these fields feeds a center pivot irrigation system which
spreads water in large circles up to one kilometer in diameter. The
aquifers which supply these fields are ancient and finite. When the
fossil water runs out, the desert sands will return. Like the
irrigation projects of many arid regions, the Saudis’ desert jewels
will soon fade.
There are many similar projects in Libya, where fossil water is pumped north from the Sahara to water fields and cities throughout the country. Here Potere accentuated red wavelengths to make the planted areas stand out from the desert, though they would appear green to an astronaut.
Through the 1990s, the New York Academy of Sciences published an excellent bimonthly magazine, The Sciences, that used graphic art to illustrate scientific concepts. The art was chosen with care and imagination, and I always looked forward to receiving my copy. Unfortunately, in an excess of cost-cutting zeal, the academy ceased publication in 2001, and past issues are now available online only to members. A sad loss of a societal treasure, one of the few true bridges between C. P. Snow's two cultures. Fortunately, Princeton plans the "Art of Science" exhibition to continue annually.