Depicting molecular randomness

Details

Role: Researcher

Other team members: Stuart Jantzen (animator), Jodie Jenkinson (PI), Gael McGill (Co-PI)

Funders: National Science Foundation

Audience: Visualisation professionals, science communicators

Description: This project investigated different visualisation strategies to cue undergraduates to notice random molecular behaviour. Students have the common misconception that molecules have some sort of agency (e.g. they seek out binding partners) or orchestration (e.g. they are sent signals by the nucleus). We found that, while the visual cueing strategies did moderate participants’ understanding of molecular interactions they failed to correct prior conceptions relating to the stochastic nature of molecular environments. Read about this study here, or visit the ScienceVis Lab website.

Medium: Maya, MolMaya

Stimuli used

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