Imaging Global Cooperation To Save Earth

In this image, hair-like fibers, which are actually polymers, embrace a green sphere. Each fiber alone is powerless, but together the fibers support the orb, embodying cooperation at a microscopic scale. Joanna Aizenberg of Harvard University suggests that this image illustrates a global effort to sustain the planet. The image itself is a photograph that captures self-assembling polymers in action, each polymer having a diameter 1/500th of a human hair.

Image credit: Sung Hoon Kang, Joanna Aizenberg, and Boaz Pokroy; Harvard University