This Month in 2012

Data visualization is increasingly important, but it requires clear objectives and improved implementation.

Microscopy without fluorescence to peek under the tissue surface

A unique set of tools facilitate thinking and hypothesis generation.

Zeroing in on single DNA strands

Tugging at single molecules shows how they shake hands.

Two-dimensional visualizations of multivariate data are most effective when combined.

Three-dimensional visualizations are effective for spatial data but rarely for other data types.

Musical microfluidics to watch and weigh growing cells

Data structure informs choice of color maps.

Boosting accuracy by building consensus.

Creating algorithms to turn images into cell models

Techniques for displaying relations between distant genomic positions.

Making direct conversion pure and efficient

Techniques are at hand for taming the ever-growing number of data tracks.

Labeling proteins for single-molecule studies.

The choice of visual representation of the linear genome is guided by the question being asked.

Building a better sequence alignment program

Different analytical tasks require different visual representations.

Heat maps are useful for visualizing multivariate data but must be applied properly.

Engineering light-induced gene expression