<p>Fibers cradle a planet-like ball in an award-winning image meant to convey that Earth's future is in our collective hands.</p><p>Harvard University's <a id="nfyt" title="Sung Hoon Kang" href="http://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/shkang">Sung Hoon Kang</a> submerged tiny plastic fibers—each only 1/500 as big as a human hair—in an evaporating liquid, where they spontaneously and cooperatively supported the small green ball.</p><p>"Using the image, I tried to describe cooperative efforts across the world to save our Earth by going green," Hoon said.</p><p>The shot was selected as best photograph in the 2009 <a id="jir6" title="International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge" href="http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/">International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge</a>. The annual contest, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the journal <em>Science</em>, award outstanding artistic efforts to visualize complex scientific concepts. (<a id="ra7o" title="See some of last year's winners." href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/photogalleries/2008-best-science-photos/">See some of last year's winners.</a>)</p><p>The winners will be announced in tomorrow's issue of <em><a id="s7es" title="Science" href="http://www.sciencemag.org/">Science</a></em>.</p><p><em>—Brian Handwerk</em></p>