Best Science Images of 2007

> This award winning photo is an Irish moss?????????EUR?Chondrus crispus?????????EUR?an Atlantic red alga. The carrageenan of the alga is harvested and used as a thickener in many processed foods.

Andrea Ottesen, a botanist and molecular ecologist at the University of Maryland, College Park (within the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture) shared a first place prize in the photography category of the 2007 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge for natural light photography.

The photo awards are given out each year by the National Science Foundation and the journal Science for the imagery that best conveys complex scientific information and concepts. This year the winners were announced in the September 28 issue of Science (www.sciencemag.org). Ottesen?????s photo was on the cover of that issue.