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VISUALIZING BIOLOGY

Workshop & Seminar

Online Portal

MERGING ART AND SCIENCE

Psst, hey. we're under construction.

We'll be uploading video and more resources from the Feb. 21. 17 Workshop soon!

Come back and visit us

 follow us @UABGCAT for Updates

About

The Visualizing Biology Seminar and Workshop was inspired by the animations and program developed by Dr. Janet Iwasa.

 

This two-part event featured:

(1) a half-day workshop where 30 graduate students learned the basics of animation and illustration, and explored the potential for protein visualization, 3D printing and virtual reality. 

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(2) a thrilling talk by TED fellow, Dr. Iwasa, including some of her recent paradigm-shifting animations and the unique story of her development as a scientist and animator

 

This website serves as an archive of the event as well as a resource for students to pursue their own illustrations and animations.

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Janet Iwasa:

How animations can help scientists test a hypothesis

Watch Dr. Iwasa's Groundbreaking TED Talk 

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Why you should listen

"While we know a lot about molecular processes, they can’t be observed directly, and scientists have to rely on simple, two-dimensional drawings to depict complex hypotheses. That is, they did until now. Janet Iwasa’s colorful and action-packed 3D animations bring scientific hypotheses to life, showing how we think molecules look, move and interact. Not only is molecular animation a powerful way to illustrate ideas and convey information to general audiences, it’s also a powerful tools for inspiring new research. However, 3D molecular animation using commercial software requires skill and time, so Iwasa has created a simpler 3D animation software tool for biologists, allowing researchers to intuitively and quickly model molecular hypotheses. In 2014, she launched the beta of her new free, open-source animation software, Molecular Flipbook, which allows biologists to create molecular animations of their own hypotheses in just 15 minutes."

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