Fibers cradle a planet-like ball in an award-winning image meant to convey that Earth's future is in our collective hands.

Harvard University's Sung Hoon Kang submerged tiny plastic fibers—each only 1/500 as big as a human hair—in an evaporating liquid, where they spontaneously and cooperatively supported the small green ball.

"Using the image, I tried to describe cooperative efforts across the world to save our Earth by going green," Hoon said.

The shot was selected as best photograph in the 2009 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. The annual contest, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the journal Science, award outstanding artistic efforts to visualize complex scientific concepts. (See some of last year's winners.)

The winners will be announced in tomorrow's issue of Science.

—Brian Handwerk

Published February 18, 2010

 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/02/photogalleries/100218-best-science-pictures