Mark Miller, a doctoral student in Brandeis University, is researching how particular types of neurones in the brain are connected to one another. By staining thin slices of a mouse’s brain, he can identify the connections visually. The image above shows the three neurone cells on the left (two red and one yellow) and their connections.

A international group of astrophysicist used a computer simulation last year to recreate how the Universe grew and evolved. The simulation image above (right) is a snapshot of the present Universe that features a large cluster of galaxies (bright yellow) surrounded by thousands of stars, galaxies and dark matter (web). (The New York Times)

One is only micrometers wide. The other is billions of light-years across. One shows neurones in a mouse brain. The other is a simulated image of the Universe. Together the suggest the surprisingly similar patterns found in vastly different natural phenomena. -DAVID CONSTANTINE

(Source: Mark Miller, Brandeis University; Virgo Consortium for Cosmological Supercomputer Simulations http://www.visualcomplexity.com)