Category Archives: Nature Genetics covers

December issue cover: What’s going on here?

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December

{credit}Sahve Greef & Aurora Lupus{/credit}

This month’s cover image is related to the pineapple genome paper, but is also a celebration of all things genome. The cover art is from a collage produced by young artists Sahve Greef and Aurora Lupus. The image shows a pineapple outline with genome tracks or chromosomes contained within the scales of the outer fruit, all set on a background reminiscent of outer space.

We asked Sahve to give us some insight into the process that led to this design:

 I was working on the cover and had a difficult time creating my original concept which would have been genomes shaped like pineapples and than it became a pineapple silhouette with genomes shaped like pineapples inside, pineapple inception! It was becoming too complicated so I was thinking it over. Aurora  suggested creating the pineapple’s scales from genome tracks, and we began working together. Originally, I was composing the collage on an orange bristol board, but felt that it made the pineapple appear flat, and disappearing into the background too much. I wanted to create a dynamic image, one that exploded off the cover and made people wonder, “Hey, what’s going on with that crazy pineapple that just punched me in the eyeballs???”  I’m amazed by how incredibly small genomes are in relation to just about everything, and it makes me really think about how small we are in the universe. 

To see more of Sahve’s art, visit her Facebook and Tumblr sites. Aurora’s art can be found at her Tumblr site.

 

Original artwork (via Aurora Lupus on Instagram)

Original artwork (via Aurora Lupus on Instagram){credit}Sahve Greef & Aurora Lupus{/credit}

November issue cover: What’s going on here?

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NovemberFor October, we explained the concept and meaning behind the image on our October issue cover. Continuing with this new feature on the blog, here is a little background about the image for November.

This month’s concept is somewhat more obvious. The cover shows a stylized map of Sardinia based on a map from 1550 drawn by the Sardinian scholar, theologian, jurist and geographer Sigismund Arquer. And this month’s issue features 3 research papers, and editorial and a News and Views article about the genetics of Sardinians.

The artistic concept behind the cover image came from Dr. Giangiorgio Crisponi, a geneticist and artist, who also happens to be Sardinian. Dr. Crisponi, among other work, described a pediatric disorder in 1996 known now as Crisponi syndrome. He is also an excellent photographer, and examples of his work can be found here. With assistance from Michele Marongiu, Dr. Crisponi modified a photograph of his own copy of the 1550 map of Sardinia. He had the idea (implemented by our own in-house graphic designer) to expand the cartouche into a stylized DNA molecule. Our designer also added the nice touch of presenting the cover features on a piece of “parchment” to fit the overall design.

For an overview of the Sardinia genetics papers, see the News and Views by Guillaume Lettre & Joel Hirschhorn here.

October issue cover: What’s going on here?

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October2015Each month, when the new issue of Nature Genetics becomes available, we are often asked: What’s going on here?

So, starting with the October issue (a bit late, but better than never!) we will answer this burning question here on the blog.

This month’s cover image was submitted by the authors of the article on page 1158 of the issue: “Absence of canonical marks of active chromatin in developmentally regulated genes.”

The artwork was inspired by this painting by Salvador Dalí “Butterfly Landscape (The Great Masturbator in a Surrealist Landscape with D.N.A.)”. The authors provided the following description:

Two DNA regions in the style of Salvador Dalí, with butterflies representing activating histone marks. The DNA axis represents a developmental time course with the DNA fragment to the right constantly expressing branches (RNA) paralleled by decoration with active histone marks (butterflies). The DNA fragment to the left expresses RNA at one specific time point and is not decorated by active histone marks (even at that time point).

For a more information about the paper, see our recent blog post featuring Q&A with the authors.

The artwork on the cover is by Luisa Lente. This artist has worked with the authors before to produce journal cover images, including one for Genome Research and one for Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.