By Anne Pichon22 July 2026
Nature talks to five artists about their approaches to communicating science visually.
Artificial-intelligence tools are making it easier than ever to generate technical images. But how good are their outputs? Nature asked five illustrators what it takes to create an accurate, engaging image that conveys a scientific or medical concept.Shehryar Saharan, a scientific illustrator, educator and researcher at the University of Toronto, Canada, investigates how AI technologies reshape creative judgement and agency. Kuukua Wilson, a Ghanaian–US medical illustrator and painter now based in Delft, the Netherlands, advocates for equity in health care. Júlia d’Oliveira, a biologist turned palaeo- and wildlife artist in São Carlos, Brazil, recreates extinct species in exquisite detail. Melissa Weiss, a graphic designer in San Diego, California, conveys ever-evolving concepts in space science. And Ella Marushchenko, a Russian-born artist now based in Charleston, South Carolina, draws from her experience in painting, design and photography to design journal covers for researchers across the scientific spectrum. They share their views on the future of scientific illustration.
