What started as a closely fought race ended up with a clear favorite pulling away from the rest of the pack, but the form of the entire field was formidable, and for a long time it looked like it might go right to the wire…
The runners-up were both early torch-bearers for the journal’s new layout, giving us a fantastic springboard into our weekly publication schedule. Both Klaus Müllen’s group at MPI Mainz and Jennifer Lewis and Paul Braun’s team at Urbana-Champaign in Illinois presented stunning rendered images: for Issue 2, a look at potential polymer field-effect transistors for flexible electronics, and for Issue 1, the direct laser patterning of photonic crystals.
Our winner pulled out all the stops with a cracking combination of SEM photography and digital rendering to create a masterpiece of scientific art. In Issue 37, Mohammed Reza Abidian and his colleagues from the University of Michigan presented their work on polymer (PEDOT) nanotube coatings for neural electrodes. The conductive polymer coatings improve the signal quality from the electrodes and can also serve as reservoirs for anti-inflammatory drugs that inhibit scar tissue formation around the implants. “In previous experiments, we have shown that PEDOT nanotubes could carry with them drugs to prevent encapsulation. This study paves the way for smart recording electrodes that can deliver drugs to alleviate the immune response of encapsulation,” Abidian said of the results illustrated so compellingly by his cover design.
Many congratulations go to the winners and runners up, and to all the short-listed candidates in the competition for their stunning contributions to the journal. Congratulations are also due to all our cover and inside cover authors, who made determining a shortlist incredibly difficult, and have set the bar so very high in terms of producing cover art that speaks so eloquently for the research in the journal. The editorial team are eagerly looking forward to seeing what scientific masterpieces will come our way in 2010!
Materialisam 