Public image formation

In most publications, Iijima is given credit for the discovery in 1991 of the nanotube structure of carbon (Iijima, 1991 Bethune et al., 1993 Iijima and Ichihashi, 1993). However, it has been said that Oberlin et al. (1976) also imaged carbon nanotubes, perhaps even SWNTs. Incredibly, nearly a century earlier, there was a study on the thermal decomposition of methane that resulted in the formation of long carbon strands, which were proposed at the time as a candidate for filaments in light bulbs (see Bacon and Bowman, 1957). 

Figure 2. Atomic force microscopy images showing the surface of a rhesus monkey erythrocyte membrane. Damage, such as formation of humps on the peripheral surface and pits in other parts, results from the interaction with virions of the canine parvovirus, (a) edge of erythrocyte (b) pits on membrane surface. (Source http //www.ntmdt.ru/ publications/download/211.pdf, Reproduced with permission from Dr Boris N. Zaitser)...

In the publication by Nielsen et al. (2004) images of the pigmented inclusions that contain the phytoalexins were prepared by confocal microscopy. This provided a three-dimensional perspective of inclusion body formation and visualization of the phytoalexins. A representation of deoxyanthocyanidin accumulation is shown in Figure 6-3 where inclusions begin to form by 5 to 8 hours after a fungal appressorium was formed by a hypha. 

Table 15-1. Image File Formats and Their Suitability by Publication Medium and Type of Figure0...

Fig. 16.7 Glycolysis showing enolase. Saccharides are processed intracellularly into UDP-sugars and metabolized to fructose 6-phosphate and then 1,6-bisphosphate if required for energy. The various steps preceding fructose 1,6-bisphosphate formation are omitted in this figure (Wikipedia public domain image slightly modified. Accessed at http //commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File GlycolysisPathway.svg). This figure was modified by Dr Wirsig-Weichmann...

At a time when science in all Western societies is increasingly concerned about its image, because it has lost the unconditional support of the public (or at least of policy makers) that it used to have in the late nineteenth and throughout the better part of the twentieth centuries, one could assume a focused attention on the media that presumably shape the image of science most effectively. The limited evidence we have shows that the depiction of science in TV entertainment cultivates a less than positive picture (Gerbner 1987, p. 112). The same is true for fiction films. Science administrators and policy makers would have ample reasons to be concerned about the image of science that is daily diffused on TV and film screens, even more so as they employ modem media formats and instmments of mass entertainment to raise interest and enthusiasm for science. The mad scientist of the movies is their natural opponent, and they would be well advised to acknowledge his historical presence. 

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