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The art of discovery: PNNL's Science as Art calendar available online

December 20, 2016 Share This!

  • Pining for CarbonDownload Original Image

    One of 12 images appearing featured in PNNL's 2017 Science as Art Calendar takes a closer look at soils and the critical role they play in adapting to climate change and sustaining the planet's biosphere — the land, sea and atmosphere occupied by living things.

  • Tougher TungstenDownload Original Image

    This image, featured in PNNL's 2017 Science as Art Calendar, highlights the work of material scientists at PNNL who are developing a process to improve the toughness of tungsten at high temperatures, including reinforcing the brittle material with silicon carbide fibers.

  • Purifying Copper Nuggets for New KnowledgeDownload Original Image

    At PNNL's Shallow Underground Laboratory — buried underground to provide shielding equivalent to 30 meters of water — researchers conduct copper electroforming to further reduce background radioactivity in commercial, high-purity copper nuggets like those shown in this photograph from the PNNL 2017 Science as Art Calendar.

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RICHLAND, Wash. – Many calendars include pictures that represent the seasons throughout the course of the year. Snowy barns, fields of wildflowers and summer sunsets make regular appearances. The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's 2017 Science as Art calendar, on the other hand, features colorful images that may represent years of research and discoveries that may impact society long into the future.

The colorful images on each page of the calendar depict PNNL's advances in science and technology that range from improving the understanding of soil processes to strengthening materials for nuclear reactors, advancing molecular research and detecting minute traces of radiation. Accompanying each image are the stories behind them-the significance of the research, the sponsor who supported it, the instrumentation used to capture the image and the research team doing the work.

For more than 50 years, PNNL researchers have reached across scientific disciplines to tackle some of the most challenging problems facing the nation-in areas including climate science, the electric grid, nonproliferation and environmental remediation. And along the way they create some beautiful works of art that capture the eye and the imagination.

For six straight years the national laboratory has produced a scientific art calendar. Rather than hold its usual Science as Art contest this year, the 12 images in the 2017 calendar were selected from the nearly 150 entries submitted by researchers between 2013 and 2015 that had not yet been featured.

A PDF of the calendar can be downloaded at no cost. The 12 images can also be viewed on PNNL's Flickr page.

Tags: Energy, Environment, Fundamental Science, National Security

Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. Founded in 1965, PNNL employs 4,400 staff and has an annual budget of nearly $1 billion. It is managed by Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. As the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information on PNNL, visit the PNNL News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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