Irresistibly and in occasionally peremptory fashion, science has, in recent years, embedded itself ever deeper into everyday culture. One can reasonably assume that this infiltration will grow as science significantly extends and deepens our understanding of just what we are.

Visually, that cultural permeation can be witnessed at several levels. Citizens are surrounded by images, often taken out of scientific context, with values ranging from the ephemeral to the icon with an impact that resonates for decades. At a deeper level, scientific ideas and perspectives are absorbed by artists and significantly enrich their portrayals or creative extensions of the world.

For over a year, Martin Kemp has treated readers of Nature, week by week, to a seemingly endless celebration of diverse and often beautiful artistic and scientific images and the (respectively) scientific and artistic impulses that can be traced within them. But the end has finally come (page 727). To judge by the author's electronic mailbox, readers have been much stimulated. They will be pleased to know that he will continue to contribute regularly, albeit less frequently, in future. Meanwhile, researchers might consider the ever more important need to communicate their science not only to their peers but also in ways that others can appreciate and that artists in particular, occasionally but valuably, can creatively absorb.