Scientific manuscripts are full of images. Since the birth of the life sciences, these images were in a form of hand drawings, with great examples from da Vinci, Hooke, van Leeuwenhoek, Remak, Buffon, Bovery, Darwin, Huxley, Haeckel and Gray's Anatomy to name a few. However, in the course of the past century, photographs and simplified schematics have gradually taken over as a way of illustrating scientific data and concepts, assuming that these are 'accurate' representations of the truth. Here, we argue for the importance of reviving the art of scientific drawings as a way of effectively communicating complex scientific ideas to both specialists and the general public.

科学手稿充满了图像。自生命科学诞生以来，这些图像便是以手绘形式出现的，其中包括达芬奇，胡克，范·列温霍克，雷马克，布冯，布佛瑞，达尔文，赫x黎，海克尔和格雷的解剖学等许多实例。但是，在过去的一个世纪中，假设这些照片是事实的“准确”表示，照片和简化的示意图已逐渐被用作说明科学数据和概念的一种方式。在这里，我们主张恢复科学绘图的艺术的重要性，这是将复杂的科学思想有效地传达给专家和公众的一种方式。