Welcome to InSights, a new department that serves up thought provoking and inspiring images — eye candy that does double-duty as brain candy. This image, titled “Pasture of Instabilities,” shows an electric field being applied to a thin film of polystyrene, one of the most widely used thermoplastics. The field amplifies irregularities on the film's surface, which appear as colorful patterns when viewed under a simple optical microscope. The image was a past winner in the International Science and Visualization Challenge, an effort of the National Science Foundation and the journal Science. For contest information, visit www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis.
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