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Nature 444, 985-991 (21 December 2006) | doi:10.1038/444985a; Published online 21 December 2006

2006 Gallery: Brilliant display

Emma Marris

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From a jewel-like bird, rarer than any diamond, to the delicately poetic swirls generated inside aircraft engines, the pursuit of knowledge turns up its fair share of beauty. This issue, Nature wraps up the year with an arresting series of images from 2006. We've divided them into the art of the natural world, planet-scapes both domestic and extraterrestrial, and the splendour of modern technology. Just because something enhances our knowledge doesn't mean it can't also be bewitching.

We begin with all of science all at once, in this conceptual map of 800,000 published papers. The red circles are nodes of papers that cite one another.