mark belan | science illustrator + info designer

4 Sept

Life ever throw something at you outta the blue that hits you so emotionally that you gotta shed a layer? it’s growth but it’s like…not fun lol

quantamagazine.orgFor the First Time, a Cell Built From Scratch Grows and Divides | Quanta MagazineScientists built a synthetic cell that combines more lifelike properties than ever before — proof of concept that it’s possible to bring nonliving materials to life, or something close to it, in the l...

2 Aug

In my happy place at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, Netherlands 🇳🇱

mark belan | science illustrator + info designer reposted

Quanta Magazine

@quantamagazine.org

1 July

For the very first time, biologists packed nonliving components into a cell-like membrane, piece by piece, and slowly witnessed the bag of molecules start to behave like life. @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/for-the-firs...

29 June

Will be speaking in a few weeks time at the GNSI Visual SciComm Conference ☀️🎨🔬

Guild of Natural Science Illustrators@gnsiart.bsky.social

Along with a wide variety of speakers and panel discussions at the GNSI Visual SciComm Conference, we are also hosting a series of five workshops through the end of August! For details and registration, visit www.gnsi.org/conference/2... #SciArt

mark belan | science illustrator + info designer reposted

Quanta Magazine

@quantamagazine.org

22 June

We've been getting a little DIY in the office lately... 🧶

Jon Turney@jonturney.bsky.social

The illustrations for this piece should get some kind of award - the intricacies of gene expression are as hard to picture as to conceptualise (the difficulty is related of course). A new take is refreshing!

13 May

Bird retinas today at Quanta 👁️🐦

vote.webbyawards.comVote for the best of the internetI just voted in The Webby People's Voice Awards and checked my voter registration.

16 Apr

If you've got a couple minutes, the Quanta team and I would appreciate a vote for our project "How We Came to Know Earth" for the Webby's this year! Voting ends tonight! vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting...

16 Apr

A playful graphic contrasting the cGAS–cGAMP pathway in multicellular versus bacterial systems. It shows how complex organisms have retained this ancient, primitive machinery, repurposing it to drive different immune outcomes. Full story: www.quantamagazine.org/the-ancient-...

7 Apr

A lot of fun making this graphic of mycorrhizal fungi for a story on the symbiosis between plants and fungi! Really pleased with how this turned out. Story here: www.quantamagazine.org/an-arctic-ro...

vote.webbyawards.comVote for the best of the internetI just voted in The Webby People's Voice Awards and checked my voter registration.

6 Apr

Quanta's special feature on climate science is nominated for a Webby for Best Individual Story Feature! A ton of blood, sweat, and tears went into making this. Would really appreciate a vote for us in this category! Thanks so much! vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting...

31 Mar

A fun illustration I made for Quanta's story on deSitter space www.quantamagazine.org/in-expanding...

26 Feb

Are the Malofiej Awards ever coming back? 😢

quantamagazine.orgHow Can Infinity Come in Many Sizes? | Quanta MagazineIntuition breaks down once we’re dealing with the endless. To begin with: Some infinities are bigger than others.

23 Feb

Did you know that infinity comes in different "sizes"? "Bigger" and "smaller" descriptions of infinity exist! Seems paradoxical, right? How can an endless concept ever have a defined size? I helped visualize a story describing this. Check it out here! www.quantamagazine.org/how-can-infi...

19 Feb

Kinda love that journals will paywall their papers but not their figures. What's the logic of that? (tho I'm not angry)

11 Feb

A new graphic illustrating a 'hydraulic jump' in flowing electrons, from today's story at Quanta: www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-m... #physics #particlephysics #electrons #science #electronflow #condensedmatterphysics

21 Jan

I made this bat flap around for today's story on neurons that help guide our day-to-day navigations. Working in web animation is a new exploration since joining Quanta, and this is a nice example of how motion can tell a simple science story. Read more: www.quantamagazine.org/how-animals-...

20 Jan

Today in Quanta we report on a unique puzzle in topology. I had a lot fun making a full graphics suite for this story, choosing the palette, mood, and even graphical representation of some of these tricky mathematical concepts. Check it out here! www.quantamagazine.org/two-twisty-s...

mark belan | science illustrator + info designer reposted

Quanta Magazine

@quantamagazine.org

4 Dec 2025

Replying to @quantamagazine.org

9/13

12 Nov 2025

THE MANY SHAPES OF BACTERIA #science #infographic #art #sciart #bacteria #microbiology #bacterium #scientificart #biology

artscistudios.comstore | artsci studiosPurchase prints and other associated merchandise from the creations of artsci studios, a scientific illustration and information graphics design studio.

12 Nov 2025

Prints available here: www.artscistudios.com/store

11 Nov 2025

VISUALIZING THE BIOMASS OF LIFE 🐛🦉🐟🐸🐐🐌🍄🦚🐙🐍🦑🐢🦂🦧🌴 #biomass #science #infographic #art #sciart #dataviz #datavisualization #biology

visualcapitalist.comAll the Biomass of Earth, in One GraphicOur planet supports nearly 8.7 million species. We break down the total composition of the living world in terms of its biomass.

11 Nov 2025

Full infographic available here: www.visualcapitalist.com/all-the-biom...

artscistudios.comstore | artsci studiosPurchase prints and other associated merchandise from the creations of artsci studios, a scientific illustration and information graphics design studio.

11 Nov 2025

The one that changed everything for me :) 🛍️ Prints available to purchase here: www.artscistudios.com/store

10 Nov 2025

In Sept, Quanta Magazine published a special issue on the science of climate change. We spent a lot of time curating 9 climate stories that span technology, microbiology, math, and more. I made these 9 planetary models that reflect each story. Check it here: www.quantamagazine.org/how-we-came-...

10 Nov 2025

I co-wrote a visual explainer with Joe Howlett on the quantum mechanics of greenhouse gases. It includes graphics/animations showing why molecules like CO₂ are such powerful drivers of planetary warming. It was fun! I'd appreciate if you checked it out here: www.quantamagazine.org/the-quantum-...

5 Nov 2025

A thing I keep noticing in science papers/talks lately is that graphics are being used to show data, not story. Silently wishing more visual resources were spent showing *how* systems and processes actually operate, rather than merely offering graphs and charts that confirm they occur.

23 Aug 2025

Algonquin vibes 🇨🇦

18 Aug 2025

ahh, the joys of reuniting with my studio PC after 8 months 🥲 #makersmagic

3 July 2025

some fun graphics in today's story about smell 👃 read it here: www.quantamagazine.org/how-smell-gu...

26 June 2025

can anyone in #cartography or #mapping help me find a plate-carree/equirectangular projection of Pannotia? (ie: this planet?) Would greatly appreciate it!

mark belan | science illustrator + info designer reposted

Teeg (but spooky)

@teeketch.art

17 June 2025

God, I genuinely hate it every time I need to open and use illustrator.

11 June 2025

I’m into the liquid glass, I dunno why everyone’s so upset about it 🤷🏼‍♂️

wow, 'that' place is really dead for sci comm/sci folks isn't it.... nothing hits there anymore!

quantamagazine.orgFirst Map Made of a Solid’s Secret Quantum Geometry | Quanta MagazinePhysicists recently mapped the hidden shape that underlies the quantum behaviors of a crystal, using a new method that’s expected to become ubiquitous.

Check out this new story at Quanta about quantum geometry - new research about the hidden shapes that underlie the quantum behaviors of a crystal. I had so much fun producing graphics for this cool story with @shalmawegs.bsky.social + @nattyover.bsky.social. www.quantamagazine.org/first-map-ma...

View full thread

The final result? A 3D web environment that presents as a clean, 2D, flat vector style! 🎯 Ie: what you're seeing is a 3D space that is rendering as a flat, vector graphic. No need to painstakingly hand-make every frame of this animation into a vector, or host a super-heavy GIF/video file!

quantamagazine.orgScience and Math News | Quanta MagazineIlluminating mathematics, physics, biology and computer science research through public service journalism.

This was such a fun, new creative pipeline to explore - a visual like this wouldn't be possible otherwise. I have so many ideas for how to expand this in new ways for the graphics reporting we do at Quanta. Stay tuned! And subscribe to Quanta for more math and science news! www.quantamagazine.org

View full thread

A need in this story was to show an arrow moving across various surfaces: the position, direction, and perspective of this arrow changes - a lot. First, I modeled these things in Cinema4D, and animated the motion of the arrow across the surface. This was the "science": accurate motion + geometry ✅

For the artistic part, I exported these 3D animations and, using Spline.Design, created toon shaders that mimicked Quanta's 2D vector style. ✅ I could then set parameters that mimic the look and appeal of reading these animations as flat graphics on our website!

View full thread

Quanta's style is 2D vectors, which is industry standard: web graphics should be scalable + lightweight, but cool 3D work tends to produce rasters (complex, but heavier, unresponsive, and pixellated). Add lighting, shadows, angle changes, etc., and it's hard to both produce and host vector graphics.

🤔 I had to think outside of the box to meet two goals: ⚛️ 1) How to capture the complexity and 3D needs of this story? (the "science" part) 🎨 2) How to make this look like it belongs to Quanta (and function like it)? (the "artistic" part)

@benbenbrubaker.bsky.social

One of the challenges in this story was figuring out how to produce graphics that captured the dimensions of these structures. Naturally, it makes sense to use animation whenever describing motion, but how to capture this in 3D - while retaining our 2D Quanta style - was a big obstacle.

mark belan | science illustrator + info designer reposted

Shalma Wegsman

@shalmawegs.bsky.social

6 June 2025

For my latest story at @quantamagazine.bsky.social I dug into cutting edge research that’s using geometry to understand the bizarre quantum behaviors of materials. Huge shoutout to @markabelan.bsky.social for bringing the abstract ideas to life with 3D graphics!

Quanta Magazine@quantamagazine.org

Physicists recently mapped the hidden geometry that underlies the quantum behaviors of a crystal, using a new method that’s expected to become ubiquitous. @shalmawegs.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/first-map-ma...

mark belan | science illustrator + info designer reposted

Ben Brubaker

3 June 2025

I was the guest on the latest episode of Quanta's new podcast, chatting with @pateljournalist.bsky.social about theoretical CS and my recent time vs space complexity story. It was my first time on a podcast — really fun to try out a new medium!

quantamagazine.orgQuanta Magazine’s Science and Math PodcastsListen to Steven Strogatz interview leading researchers about the great scientific and mathematical questions of our time on “The Joy of Why” podcast, or stay informed about math, physics, biology and...