Cosmic View of Life on Earth

A project that brings astrophysical visualization techniques to the biological world.

The Cosmic View of Life on Earth aims to be a portal to contextualize biological data, depicting the entire tree of life on macro and micro scales.

Using phylogenetic trees and DNA sequence data from across the tree of life, we build visualizations based on any taxonomic level, from kingdom all the way down to genus and species. At each point, we can place a range of data types from scientific collections or analyses. Images, 3D models from micro-CT or surface scans, protein models, or other quantitative data such as wingspan, flight pattern, skull shape, age, or weight can be easily viewed in a comparative context.

Scales of astronomy and biology
The relationships between hierarchical classification of astronomical objects and biological taxa. In astrophysics (left), we progress from Earth, to the Solar System, to the Milky Way Galaxy, and out to the large-scale distribution of galaxies. In biology (right), we traverse from the species level (where we see a CT-scanned skull), to the class level, to see surrounding classes, and out to the domain level showing the three main kingdoms: plants, animals, and fungi.
Brian Abbott/AMNH

Astronomical Visualization Applied to Biology

Astrophysics today is defined by its ability to gather, process, and visualize small- and large-scale data. Astrophysics' ability to explore multi-dimensional data and navigate a broad range of scales is applied to biological data. Our portal ingests, analyzes, and disseminates a diverse range of biological data on many scales.

The result of this pipeline is interactive data exploration within OpenSpace, the visualization software co-developed at AMNH. This can take the form of a curated, polished public talk or a science data analysis tool.

A cricket CT scan in the Hayden Planetarium
A CT scan of a cricket's exoskeleton (left), superimposed scans of the cricket's exoskeleton and its inner respiratory system (center), and exploring the inside of the respiratory system (right) inside the immersive Hayden Planetarium.
B. Abbott/AMNH

Biological Storytelling

One goal of this project is to develop a visualization platform that enables the exploration of biological data and stories in one, consistent, contextual biological universe. In astrophysics, we always begin our story at Earth and progress out to more distant objects on larger scales. In biology, we want to develop that large context for explaining life and its biological processes, beginning from a place of common knowledge and exploring deeper biological ideas. Maintaining context between biological scales while telling these deeper stories is critical in our understanding of the facts and facets of life.

Insect innards in the Data Learning Classroom
Kids exploring the insides of an insect in the Data Learning Classroom.
J. Faherty/AMNH

The Team

American Museum of Natural History

Jacqueline Faherty, Astrophysicist & Visualization
Brian Abbott, Astrophysicist & Visualization
Hollister Herhold, Biologist & Pipeline Development
William Harcourt-Smith, Paleontologist

University of Basel, Switzerland

Wandrille Duchemin,  Bioinformatician
David S. Thaler, Biologist

Linköping University, Sweden

Takanori Fujiwara, Computer Scientist & Dimensionality Reduction
Elias Elmquist, Sonification

Graduate Students

From Linköping University's Dept of Science and Technology:
Emma Segolsson (2022)
Linn Storesund (2022)
Robin Ridell (2023)
Märta Nilsson (2023)

Publications

A Cosmic View of Life on Earth: Hierarchical Visualization of Biological Data Using Astronomical Software
Wandrille Duchemin, Takanori Fujiwara, Hollister W. Herhold, Brian P. Abbott, Elias Elmquist, David S. Thaler, William Harcourt-Smith, Jacqueline K. Faherty, 2025
IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, in review

Birdsongification: Contextual and Complementary Sonification for Biology Visualization
Elias Elmquist, Malin Ejdbo, Alexander Bock, David S. Thaler, Anders Ynnerman, Niklas Rönnberg, 2024
Proceedings of the International Conference on Auditory Display, p. 34-41 (Article in journal)

Using Point Cloud Interpolation to Present a Cosmic View of Life on Earth
Märta Nilsson & Robin Ridell, 2023
MS Thesis

PyKleeBarcode: Enabling Representation of the Whole Animal Kingdom in Information Space
W. Duchemin & D. S. Thaler, 2023
PLOS ONE, vol. 18, no. 6, pp.e0286314

A Cosmic View of Life on Earth: Visualizing the Relationship Between Species DNA in a Three-dimensional Space
Emma Segolsson & Linn Storesund, 2022
MS Thesis

Acknowledgements

Funding for this project has been generously provided by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.

OpenSpace development supervised by Emma Broman (U Linköping) and Micah Acinapura (AMNH).