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Here at the ӳ����ýMinded Blog, we polled the ӳ����ý community for their best holiday-themed scientific imagery — and we got some wonderful responses. We'll be taking a break until the new year, but in the meantime, enjoy these gorgeous biological images sure to keep you in the holiday spirit. Check back each day for a new entry. See you in 2011!

The image on the right, contributed by Rakesh Karmacharya, features a neuronal culture derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells. Neurons are in green, glial cells are in red and the blue stain shows cell nuclei.

As the famous first words of Star Trek suggest, space is often considered the “final frontier” — a vast region beyond our tiny world that is largely unknown and yet to be explored. But for some ӳ����ý scientists, that distinction goes to a decidedly different area: chemical space.

It’s not much bigger than a breadbox, yet it opens up a new way of analyzing the individual “letters” in DNA. Wrapped in a pastel plastic case, powered by silicon chips that are common all over the world, the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine is finally being released commercially.

But this genetic sequencing technology is no stranger to the ӳ����ý. Chad Nusbaum, Niall Lennon, and their colleagues at the ӳ����ý's 320 Charles Street location have been putting three Ion Torrents through their paces for awhile now. I got a chance to watch them kick the tires.