PNNL

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.