Images in Scientific Writing

The Mishra piece really interested me. I was reminded while reading it of learning, in high school chemistry and physics, about the different ways scientists have attempted to visually document the things they study, specifically very small things like new molecules, electrons, neutrons, protons, reactions and how they could prove what they found actually looked like the diagrams they have used over the years. We even discussed the models we would put together of different compounds and why they did/didn't fully represent what actually happened. These are extremely interesting things to think about because of how highly esteemed Western Scientific thought is.

I have always been fascinated by the idea that a simple drawing can change the way something, that should be black and white, is viewed and understood. Even within the field of chemistry, if something is drawn or modeled incorectly, it could actually alter the substance and what the drawing means to begin with. It seems that more caution has been used in recent years with theorizing about the appearance of the inner structures of molecules but the formulation of pictures, while, if incorrectly depicted, can be a setback in understanding, it also seems that it is a huge part of how we, as people, grow to understand more and experiment more and expand the field. It seems extremely important to play around with models and pictures in order to further understand things. I am interested in why this method of learning and developing ideas is not used across every field of study (*ehem*, humanities) but Mishra is right, for some reason, it is seen as a silly and childish or un-academic way to present information for people within the humanities.

It seems that the more I learn about the lack of multi-modal learning and writing in academia, the more I realize that we are being seriously shorted on the amount of information that we could potentially access and understand. It would be interesting to see what type of pictures and visuals could be used with the academic writing we have all grown to know and love... ... and hate?