The catchily titled ‘2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge’ has rolled around again. The winning entries are published in this week’s issue of Science and can also be seen on the NSF website.

Pictured here are the suction cups of the Loligo pealei squid, captured by Jessica Schiffman and Caroline Schauer of Drexel University. That’s the image they captured, not the squid. This was given an Honorable Mention in the Photography category and probably would have won if it wasn’t the stuff of nightmares.

More below the fold.

3D Imaging of Mammalian Cells with Ion-Abrasion Scanning Electron Microscopy

Honorable Mention in Illustration (tie)

By Donald Bliss and Sriram Subramaniam of the National Library of Medicine

Photography – First Place

The Glass Forest (a community of diatoms attached to the basal segment of a marine invertebrate)

By Mario De Stefano of the 2nd University of Naples

Images: all copyright of their respective authors.