Make visible the as yet invisible. The human nervous system evolved in an environment where seeing change—the slightest difference in one’s surroundings—could mean life or death. It is not surprising that our most developed cultural forms are visual despite the fact that much of life occurs outside the range of visible light. Through scientific tools and methods we have reached far beyond this narrow slice of the electromagnetic spectrum to colonize its full range, from radio waves and infrared to x-rays, gamma radiation, and cosmic rays.

Image changemaker Felice Frankel is a science photographer, research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of Envisioning Science: The Design and Craft of the Science Image and On the Surface of Things, coauthored by George Whitesides. She collaborates with scientists to create compelling research images to better communicate ideas to the general public and has received awards from many national organizations including the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Frankel’s incredible still photographs make the invisible world visible and help scientists communicate to those outside the research community.