The Brain as Icon - Reflections on the Representation of Brain Imaging on American Television, 1984-2002

Neurons in sparkling space: scientific objectivity and ‘blurry’ images in neuroscience

“…That is, although many scientists uphold that their images are made for investigation purposes and not geared to be pleasing, per se, particularly attractive digital images released by scientists are still not typically understood as having an epistemological function. The images are more often said to be the result of market forces in the media [Nelkin, 1995;Wassman, 2015;Hornmoen, 2010], of the communicative needs for "selling science" [Veldhus, 2018, p. 79], of the acclaim for mesmerizing images in new contests held by scientific institutions [Madhusoodanan, 2016], or they are born of a need to boil down complexity for an untrained eye [Rafner and Schmidt Kjaergaard, 2018]. The enhanced digital scientific image with strong contrasts and bright colors is situated as an audience-specific product to catch attention, not as an integral part of an argument serving to instantiate a new scientific perspective.…”