A thread on understanding the importance of 'complementary colors' in science figures 🎨👇🏼
(tl;dr, it will enhance color harmony, make your data 'pop', highlight antagonistic reactions, and keep your images color-blind accessible)
Some of the top companies in the world make use of complementary colors to make their logos and branding 'pop'
(caution: I'd still avoid the red-green color combo to avoid colorblind accessibility issues!)
In other design industries, the use of complementary colors is subtle but extremely effective (especially when creating color balance and accent colors!)
A few examples of complementary colors (blue+orange) applied to effective science figures.
Notice how even the small PD1 and CD19 proteins 'pop' against the blue NK cell (the other proteins just sort of 'sink back' into the background)
Here's an example of how powerful harnessing complementary colors can be for a science figure! 📖
IMAGE A: The blue background makes the orange action potential the focal point
vs.
IMAGE B: The yellow back-drop really forces the purple post-synaptic receptors to really 'pop'
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Alright, another common misconception I encounter is the gene vs allele/variant mixup. Most often I see it phrased something like "She has the gene for breast cancer."
In this example, I think we all understand what the person means: she has a genetic variant that makes her more predisposed to breast cancer. For a lot of purposes, that's the only information we really need.
But in reality, we all have two copies or alleles of the BRCA2 gene, one from each parent. But some of us have versions of that gene that make us more prone to developing breast cancer.
Alright, time to talk some DNA misconceptions and how we can try and break them down!
First up, myths about dominant and recessive traits.
This one hurts, because I thought a lot of these were true for a while!
Often when learning about genetics, we learn that things like tongue-rolling, attached earlobes, and PTC tasting are pure dominant/recessive traits. They're simple, easy traits to demonstrate in a classroom.
But unfortunately, many of them aren't really true dominant/recessive traits! There's a great website called "Myths of Human Genetics" by John H. McDonald at the University of Delaware that breaks down where many of these myths came from: udel.edu/~mcdonald/myth…
Good morning, all! Today, we're gonna talk about the importance of SciComm in Genetics. Why genetics specifically?
Because that's what my PhD is in, so I'm biased towards it being the coolest science 😂.
BUT ALSO because I strongly believe we're all increasingly asked to make choices that involve genetics in our everyday lives, and I want to equip everyone with the vocabulary to feel comfortable making these choices, from getting a DNA test at the doctor to understanding GMOs.
And while I've believed this for a long time, it was thrown into an incredible spotlight over the past few years, as things like PCR and RNA became household words. Imagine my delight as I saw RNA trending, and then the sadness as I found threads full of misinformation.