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No one can deny a strong connection between science and art. Even Albert Einstein once said that the greatest scientists are artists as well. But how do you convey scientific ideas in an engaging, understandable, original, bold, yet accurate way?

It was the task of the young artists who illustrated the articles in the popular science magazine SPECTRUM, published by Vilnius University, Lithuania.

#1

The Other Side Of Maternity By Jekaterina Budrytė

The Other Side Of Maternity By Jekaterina Budrytė

Society often refers to motherhood as the innate meaning and fullness of a woman’s existence. However, not all women experience motherhood in the same way: some find raising a child joyous and traumatizing. Some regret becoming a mother or don’t want children at all.

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Amanda Hunter
Community Member
3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And some fall for the romantic idea of a cute cuddly baby and are unable to cope with the reality.

Jayne Kyra
Community Member
3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Women being pressured into pregnancy, trauma, and regrets, should not be taboo! I will never have any offspring, but it pissed me off to see women stigmatized for being human.

According to Jekaterina Budrytė, one of the SPECTRUM illustrators, an illustration of a scientific article is like a face or a garment of the text, it should arouse curiosity, intrigue, and offer a new way of seeing the text.

"When illustrating the magazine, I was aiming for simplicity, clarity, a more interesting insight, always wanting to escape clichés and convey my own interpretation", she says.

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    #2

    Chemical Evolution Of Cosmos By Reda Tomingas

    Chemical Evolution Of Cosmos By Reda Tomingas

    We often imagine the Universe as an incomprehensibly large thing. However, in reality, it is constructed of minor elements: elementary particles, atoms, and chemical elements. Almost all chemical elements appeared during the processes in the stars. It may be hard to believe, but in the stars, vital carbon, oxygen, calcium, and all the other elements that life on Earth depends on have emerged.

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    Vorknkx
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    We were all forged in the hearts of stars, and that's freakin' amazing.

    Richard Portman
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It is good to see Lithuanian artists. Sometimes i feel that i don't understand everything. It means i take more time and don't just go through a bunch of pictures . Thank you.

    Romenriel
    Community Member
    3 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Hm, I think elementary particles are pretty incomprehensible concept as well.

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    #3

    Greenwashing By Adriana Valantiejūtė

    Greenwashing By Adriana Valantiejūtė

    An increasing number of organizations working towards the image of a socially responsible company communicate about projects related to ecology and a more sustainable lifestyle. However, it is becoming increasingly common for organizations communicating their green strategy and sustainable business ambitions to fail to take significant action to protect the environment. This misleads the public and creates the so-called “green brainwashing” effect.

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    Reda Tomingas, who illustrated the latest issue of the magazine, believes that metaphor is one of the most important elements of successful scientific illustration. It is also very important that the drawing complements the text and makes it even easier for the reader to understand. She tried not to illustrate the themes literally, but to find a way of conveying the main idea, a relevant element of interpretation that would be in line with the essence of the article, but at the same time would be intriguing, and would evoke an "Aha" moment.

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    #4

    Price Changes By Adriana Valantiejūtė

    Price Changes By Adriana Valantiejūtė

    Nowadays, when the supply of goods and services is vast, consumer choice is more than ever affected by rational factors such as price, discount, or the quality of the product and emotions that provoke consumer impulsiveness and spontaneous buying. Therefore, when making decisions to reduce or increase a price, it is essential to assess the consumer reactions to the change in price. A 70% price reduction causes the most significant emotional response of pleasure. However, a buyer may associate an excessive discount with insufficient product quality.

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    Bexx 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    As a marketer, I’ve always found this stuff so interesting.

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    #5

    False Intentions By Jekaterina Budrytė

    False Intentions By Jekaterina Budrytė

    Many legal psychology research papers analyze people’s lies about past events. Meanwhile, little research has been done to assess people’s behavior when they lie about their intentions (talk about plans they have no intention of realizing). As it turns out, in vain, because identifying false intentions could be used as an effective measure to prevent crime.

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    Teresa Stabler
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    But how do we find out what someone's intentions are?

    Krzysztof Ziętek
    Community Member
    3 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    By focusing on what they do and comparing it with what they say.

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    Good scientific illustrations are not easy to create. Jekaterina Budrytė, says that the most difficult thing is to turn complex information into a comprehensible drawing, which is like a summary of a scientific article but expressed in one illustration rather than one sentence. If you manage to do this, success follows.

    #6

    S****de Prevention By Ūla Šveikauskaitė

    S****de Prevention By Ūla Šveikauskaitė

    According to the Lithuanian Institute of Hygiene, the number of s****des in Lithuania has decreased by 20% over the past five years. In 2017, it was the lowest since the restoration of independence (26 s****des per 100 thousand population). However, this should only be the beginning of a downward trend in the number of s****des in our country. The Lithuanian Health Strategy envisages a reduction in the number of s****des by as much as 60.5% over the next three years.

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    Isabella
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Suicides, BP? This non-sense censorship gives me the feeling of the atmosphere from a book of Kafka.

    Diana Lopetaitė
    BoredPanda Staff
    Premium
    3 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Hi, BP staff here, we actually have to censor certain words due to the new Facebook algorithm (Facebook flags a lot of seemingly innocent words for absolutely no reason and we have to comply with their rules), unfortunately, there's not much we can do about it as of now. Either way, sorry for the inconvenience, we aren't fans of the overly-censored stuff either.:)

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    Vorknkx
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Spoiler alert: not talking about suicides will not reduce their number in any way. Using weird pseudo-words like "unlifed" doesn't help either.

    L1z
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Suicide should not be censored. It is a conversation we should keep open so that those contemplating it might feel more comfortable talking about it.

    Melissa Mabe
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Sensoring the word suicide. You just added to the gut wrenching stigma people like myself who constantly deal with suicidal ideations feel. Way to become part of the problem.

    Anne McKinney
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Come on BP. SUICIDE, DEATH, DYING....give us a break with your ridiculous censorship. We aren't children.

    Jayne Kyra
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Hey, BP, if "triggering" words like MURDER, KILLED, and SUICIDE get you demonetized, then, and I know this is absolutely insane of an idea, but stay with me, how about you post your own original content instead of taking stuff from Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, and others? OMFG, I know, so crazy, right!?

    Giedith Balmer
    Community Member
    3 years ago

    This comment has been deleted.

    Giedith Balmer
    Community Member
    3 years ago

    This comment has been deleted.

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    Giles McArdell
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is one powerful f**king image.

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    #7

    Dreams By Andrius Banelis

    Dreams By Andrius Banelis

    The mystery surrounding dreams has been of interest to humankind since ancient times. Attempts have been made to decode dreams as hidden messages, often with prophetic content as a hint of what awaits a person in the future. Nowadays, scientists engaged in dream research are still trying to figure out how night-time images emerge, their primary function, and how to manage and interpret them.

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    Vorknkx
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I like to think they are episodes of my life in alternate universes... which means my alternate slef has a very exciting life (and a bigger apartment!).

    shodokai
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Myths are public dreams. Dreams, are private myths.

    L1z
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I agree with the activation synthesis theory of dreaming; that dreams are a product of neurons randomly firing from the pons region of the brain and, simultaneously, the brain interpreting the random activations in the form of images.

    Margaret Eveleigh
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This could just as easily be titled: 'Dementia' as it portrays old age severing/damaging the brain

    Sue Lynn Chan
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    So does anyone explain why my dream involve a Queen Elizabeth riding a turtle, telling everyone we are going to space and free the ice cream from aliens?

    Robert Kuntz
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The Turtle has been symbolic for the planet Earth in Hindu, Chinese and some American cultures. The Queen represents the ruling class of this planet, and our journeying through space, on this planet, will soon allow us to experience the best ice cream we have ever had! The Aliens have the best stuff!

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    Bored Panda interviewed another one of the authors behind this project - Ūla Šveikauskaitė. First, we asked the artist about how she got into illustrating.

    "I knew that I would work in the artistic field since I was a child, but I drew my attention towards the illustration subject in the first years of my bachelor studies. I had a desire to do something which has components of artistic expression but also includes visual communication, so illustrating seemed like a good middle ground between fine arts and design."

    #8

    How Much The Time Costs? By Ūla Šveikauskaitė

    How Much The Time Costs? By Ūla Šveikauskaitė

    Nowadays, having no time is trendy. Everyone seems to lack it. Therefore, economists started wondering where the time goes and how much it is worth these days? They estimated that 1 hour of your work would cost €6.25 and a minute about €0.10. Research shows that Lithuanians give their children and relatives an average of 7 minutes a day, which would cost less than one euro.

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    Memaw Mitch
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    As a whole, society needs to invest more in our children.

    L1z
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    And their own lives outside of work. I'm lucky that I have a pretty good life-work balance but I know others are not so lucky to be able to afford only working max 30 hours per week

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    Robecca
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Im confused af by this paragraph. Economists from Lithuania? Wouldn’t you take the minimum wage as a rough estimate? This is well below it in my country. I don’t see parents giving their children 7 mins a day or €0.70? Huh??

    Susanne B
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Maybe Lithuania has a decent minimum wage, maybe they are using an average which must be larger

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    #9

    Human Trafficking By Andrius Banelis

    Human Trafficking By Andrius Banelis

    Human trafficking mostly targets vulnerable people. However, there are myths that people become victims at their own free will. Unfortunately, sometimes victims don’t even realize what they got caught up in because of their vulnerability. Human traffickers primarily direct their criminal intentions towards minors, people with physical or mental disabilities, and women.

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    Anne McKinney
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    No one...and I mean NO ONE would voluntarily subject themselves to human trafficking.

    Ūla also told us her opinion about the role that artists currently hold in our modern-day society.

    "It really depends on the type of art which is created and the artist itself. Evoking strong feelings towards sensitive issues nowadays is not really a must, but if the artist feels strongly engaged in certain topics, they could use their art as a powerful tool to express certain views in a non-verbal way. In times of social media, images have a strong effect on people’s minds, so the illustrator can use their craft to make important articles about relevant topics more accessible and appealing to a broad audience."

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    #10

    Home-Based Telework By Adriana Valantiejūtė

    Home-Based Telework By Adriana Valantiejūtė

    Researchers who conducted an empirical study during the pandemic and interviewed more than 400 Lithuanians aged 18–64 with employment relationships found that the intensity of remote work was positively influenced by an individual’s personal ability to work remotely and the organization’s approach to remote work. It is safe to say that an organization’s, especially the managers’, positive attitude towards this flexible form of work organization is directly related to the intensity of remote work.

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    Jonathan Nichols
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This seems like a bizarrely straightforward point to make. The "intensity"with which you work is directly proportional to your ability and support structure? Yes, yes it is. A more valuable study would have analyzed what types of people or businesses are more likely to adapt well to the change and provide statistical cross analysis as to why.

    Vorknkx
    Community Member
    3 years ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Sadly, not applicable in my job - we have too much stuff on paper that requires you to be present at the office...

    ElenaK
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Same here! We can work remotely but our CEOs are too narrow minded and shut the whole thing down now that covid restrictions are over.

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    #11

    Urban Green Spaces By Ūla Šveikauskaitė

    Urban Green Spaces By Ūla Šveikauskaitė

    Green urban infrastructure is not only perceived as trees, city parks, or forests. It can also include children’s playgrounds and even cemeteries. To assess the greenness of cities, it is not enough just to know the exact area of green spaces in the city. In principle, this assessment says nothing about the quality of those spaces, both ecologically and in terms of use. In addition to numbers representing the area or its percentage, there is a need for a spatial, quantitative, and qualitative assessment of the services provided to people by urban ecosystems.

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    Shiroiko
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    That's not go green but go screen

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    When it comes to this project we were also wondering if any real-life situations might've inspired Ūla.

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    "My surroundings and my experiences definitely had an impact on the illustrations for 'Spectrum' but not in a 'real-life situation drawn on a piece of paper' way. In some works, I added elements like a reflection of the landscape, which resembles my hometown, a character who looks a bit like me or people from my circles, a visual quote from a famous painting I like, etc. I try not to be too straightforward but sometimes in my work, even if it’s not required, I leave traces of my own personal worldview."

    #12

    Creative Artificial Intelligence By Reda Tomingas

    Creative Artificial Intelligence By Reda Tomingas

    Algorithms capable of creating are only one step behind the general artificial intelligence that mimics human intelligence. Generative adversarial networks are considered to be just that as they can do almost the same things a human can: create music, draw pictures, synthesize speech.

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    Anne McKinney
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Stephen Hawking warned that A.I. is one of the greatest threats to humankind.

    Susanne B
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    What is frightening with A.I. is, that it is supposed to mimic human intelligence, but look at the world and see, what human intelligence has done to it

    Shiroiko
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    So why are so many people losing their jobs hmmm... i wonder...

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    #13

    Morality In Philosophy By Eglė Plytnikaitė

    Morality In Philosophy By Eglė Plytnikaitė

    Rapidly growing research on philosophy shows that moral judgments influence us when we think about our identity. People tend to believe a morally impaired person is no longer the same person. Moreover, a growing body of research shows that the continuity of the moral character is more important in making decisions about one’s identity than the continuity of various other psychological characteristics, such as memory.

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    Artists go through their creative journey receiving a lot of opinions from other people too, therefore we inquired the artist about some of the memorable responses she might've received.

    "One friend told me 'Your work is dark yet comforting', that was a big compliment for me. I am happy when people watching my work feel disrupted and at the same time at ease. Some say that they would be happy to hang the illustration I made for a scientific subject on their wall. I am glad because then it means that I interpreted the topic, not in a dry way and that it can work not only as an additive to the article but as an independent visual piece."

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    #14

    Research Of The Cellars Of St. John's Church By Tomas Tarvydas

    Research Of The Cellars Of St. John's Church By Tomas Tarvydas

    A few years ago, coffins with human remains and the remains of tombstones were discovered in the largest cellar of the Church of St. Johns. The research initiated by the VU Museum allowed to properly arrange the discovered remains and reveal some significant facts of the past about the legendary story of 36 Franciscan martyrs of Vilnius.

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    #15

    Human Organs From A Test Tube By Ūla Šveikauskaitė

    Human Organs From A Test Tube By Ūla Šveikauskaitė

    The long journey of scientific progress, which has helped humanity to realize that tissues are made up of cells, will in the future lead to the cultivation of human organs in tubes, as we can already foresee today. This will probably bring us closer to the possibility of creating an artificial human being - not a thinking creature homo sapiens but an organism performing human physiological functions.

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    Anne McKinney
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Think of the possibilities. No longer would there be wait lists for transplants of liver, kidneys, lungs etc. Many lives would be saved.

    MOONIE
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    but think of the expenses, being these things wont be mass produced and will most likely take years to perfect, this treatment will be too expensive for many people to afford. yea it will save lives but also put those people in crippling debt

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    Shiroiko
    Community Member
    3 years ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Or a way to deal with cannibalism

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    We also asked Ūla about what would she like for people to take away from her work, and here's what she told us, "When I illustrate the text I would really like for people to find my work relatable at first, that is what makes a viewer stay with the piece for more than 5 seconds. Then, through a visual, I would like for the viewers to immerse themselves in a seemingly more difficult subject, start to think about the particular issue from a different angle, and through the aesthetic feeling, find the topic closer to them."

    Lastly, we asked about how Ūla came up with the ideas for her illustrations from this particular project.

    "Since a lot of subjects in 'Spectrum' are science-related, I needed to get myself very well informed at first, so as not to spread disinformation unintentionally. Then, after a lot of research, I wrote some keywords and made visual associations with the scientific subjects. After research, notes, and scribbles, I moved to more accurate sketches of the composition and then to the final version.

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    To make the illustration work, you need to combine the images familiar to many with an unexpected visual twist. Sometimes you come up with an idea that takes hours of research, sometimes it just occurs in your head when you go for a walk or take a shower."

    #16

    Climate Change By Ūla Šveikauskaitė

    Climate Change By Ūla Šveikauskaitė

    The global scientific community agrees that if global temperatures rise by more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels, we will all move closer to a disaster.
     
    First of all, climate change will lead to more frequent and significant natural disasters, degradation of the natural environment, affect human health, and, most importantly, disrupt international security in the world.

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