A couple of months ago, I was shocked and disappointed to see an AI-generated image as the cover of a scientific journal. I posted on X (formerly Twitter) about how I felt and the journal quickly removed the image and asked me to write an article about why journals and scientists should not use AI images in their publications. I argue that using AI science illustrations is troublesome for the scientific community as inaccurate images degrade the quality and rigor of the scientific literature. It is also unethical and harmful to artists as AI is trained on our work without our consent or compensation. 

You can read the article here: Why Scientific Journals Should Ban AI-Generated Images

Chase Brownstein and colleages at Yale have just published research in Current Biology about deep sea anglerfish. This group of fish has the unique trait of sexual parasitism, whereby males are much smaller than females and attach themselves to her. The researchers demonstrate a connection between the evolution of sexual parasitism and radiation into the deep sea environment. 

I painted a number of deep sea anglerfishes, frogfishes, batfishes, and others for this paper. It was a big challenge because the frogfishes are very camouflaged and have tons of color and pattern complexity and variation. For the deep sea species, reference photos are often very limited or are of specimens in poor health. Despite the challenges, this was such a fun project to do. The fish are so weird and interesting! I quickly discovered that watercolor doesn't get quite black enough, so many of the fish are painted in gouache, which was fun to play with. 

My favorite podcast, Journaling with Nature, asked me if I would be interested in being interviewed about science illustration. It was such a fun experience talking with Bethan Burton about nature in my childhood, my experience leaving academia and finding a career in science illustration, and how I go about collaborating with scientists to create figures and illustrations that help communicate their research.

Some of the fun stuff we talk about: how growing up in a tropical rainforest sparked my love of biology, how much fun it has been to teach my daughter about the wildlife in her temperate rainforest surroundings (mostly slugs), and, of course, how I got hooked on mushroom hunting.

We also explore the importance of communication when creating scientific figures and how creating an illustration is much like solving a puzzle. I thoroughly enjoyed talking with Bethan and I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation.

Check out the link to listen to the podcast and the Journaling with Nature website.

​ ​www.journalingwithnature.com/podcasts/episode-67-julie-johnson

I am thrilled to announce that four of my Lake Tanganyika cichlid paintings are on the cover of Science Advances, highlighting research from Alexandra A.-T. Weber and her colleagues on cichlid evolution. It is wonderful to see science illustrations on the cover, and it really brings attention to the research. 

The cichlid paintings are also integrated into the figures throughout the paper. Congratulations to the authors on all of your hard work! If you are interested to read the paper, click this link -> https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abg5391​

It is such an honor to have my painting of a Chinese high-fin sucker fish chosen for the cover of the scientific journal, Genome Biology and Evolution. The authors and I created this cover illustration by combining my watercolor painting with their data and adding a subtle genome sequence over the top of the painting. Most of my work is incorporated into figures, embedded inside the articles. It is really fun to see one of them out front on the cover. Thank you to the Krabbenhoft lab at the University at Buffalo for hiring me to do this work and putting out some really cool research!

If you'd like to read the article, please visit ​academic.oup.com/gbe/article/13/9/evab190/6349175

When it comes to ecology, there is one field where having illustrations really helps improve accessibility and understanding. That field is Theoretical Ecology. Theoretical ecologists look at complex interactions in nature and transform them into mathematical frameworks. It can be challenging to effectively communicate theory to a broader audience. I know I'm not the only one who glazes over when they see a paper full of equations! This is where an illustration can really work to give biological context to the math.

My husband is a theoretical ecologist, and I've created a number of illustrations for his papers. This latest one took his equation for incorporating mutualisms into coexistence theory, and broke it into parts that I then explained visually using watercolor illustrations of each component of the equation. The figure helps show how each biological interaction is incorporated into the theory.

You can read Christopher Johnson's paper in Ecology here.