Drawing inspiration from science

A Chinese ink painting of a farmer leading an ox across a bridge, followed by a boy with a bamboo basket on his back made the cover of an October issue of Structure, a United States-based Cell Press journal.

In addition to the jelly fish and lotus flowers in the river under the bridge, chemical compounds and elemental structures were highlighted and weaved into the picture.

It vividly depicts the process in which a special enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of an important organic compound is activated — the latest breakthrough by a Chinese scientific research team.

This research is considered to be of great significance for understanding the internal synthesis processes of various organisms, the working principles of enzymes, and the development of related bioprocesses.

The drawing was one of many works by Xixizhiyan, a scientific research visualization service provider based in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province.

"What we do is to visualize abstract concepts and help scientific researchers demonstrate their findings in a straightforward and distinctive way," says Wang Yixi, founder of the Xixizhiyan company.

Over the past four years, Wang and his team have come up with more than 10,000 visual works for academic papers across a variety of fields, many of which have made their way to the world's top academic journals, including Nature, Science and Cell.

Those journals have allowed, and even encouraged, paper authors to come up with such illustrations.

"Generally speaking, the papers with illustrations that make the journal covers are considered to be either the most valuable or the hottest in that issue of the journal," Wang says.

He considers his paintings as the cover of a scientific paper and each one should reflect the core content and findings, thus bringing more attention to the paper itself.

After a customer places an order, there is a discussion about the paper's content, before drafts of a design are made, followed by numerous rounds of fine-tuning.

"It takes about 10 days on average to finish a work," Wang says.

However, in some cases, that could be extended due to constant changes.

"The author may have feedback from their tutor, who then might seek the opinions of the paper's other researchers," Wang explains, adding that it can be quite a lot of back and forth to the fine-tuning part.

Having a scientific background enables him to understand most of the academic papers he illustrates better.

Now in his 30s, Wang earned his bachelor's degree in pharmaceutical engineering and then completed a master's and PhD in chemistry, all at the Shihezi University in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

"Back then, I often came across an experimental preparation process that I had to explain, but the amount of text was too large and abstract, so I needed to illustrate it," Wang recalls.

As he had been interested in drawing, and related software like Photoshop, he decided to turn his graphics into a fine art.

"I went on to study 3D graphics software, so I could better display the microscopic structures in my field and improve the presentation of my papers," Wang says.

It didn't take long before his classmates and professors noticed his talents and asked him to help them with their papers.

By word of mouth, more people beat a path to Wang's door and were willing to pay for his service.

"I already had a fair amount of regular customers at school," he says.

Right after he finished his PhD program in 2019, Wang opened his own business in Chengdu, specializing in visualization of scientific research.

Now, the company has grown to employing 16 designers, mostly with a science background.

"Orders have been on the rise, and each day we receive inquiries from new clients," Wang says.

To date, each of the staff members working on at least five orders at the same time, and each order is priced between 2,000 yuan ($280) and 4,000 yuan .

He attributed the boom in business to the rise of domestic scientific research and the demanding nature of the work.

"Scientific research drawing is a niche market in art design, targeting a relatively small group of people, mostly scientific researchers," Wang says.

"It requires a certain level of professional knowledge and an understanding of principles laid out in each paper. Equally, the illustrations also need to be tastefully drawn and visually appealing, which can be quite time consuming," he adds.

One of Wang's labors of love covered an ingenious synthesis of several satellite photos that accentuated the potential hazards of a phytoplankton in the global ecosystem, an issue that was raised by a scientific team from the Southern University of Science and Technology, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

The final artwork made the cover of Nature in March.

One of his works that carries distinctive Chinese elements is a composite image, depicting a scientist as the folk goddess Nyuwa, carrying her newly discovered compound to fill a void in the sky. The work made the cover of the Chinese Journal of Chemistry in April 2020.

When asked if he has ever had regrets about choosing academic graphics over chemistry, Wang says he hasn't, and considers his job very important.

"Every scientific paper is innovative, and graphics are an essential part of scientific papers," Wang says, adding that what he tries to achieve is an explanation of models or methods, to showcase experimental results, visually process data or compare differences among experiments.

"The goal is to effectively convey research findings and enable readers to gain a deeper understanding and evaluate the research content," he says.

In 2022, China overtook the United States as the country with the most papers published in influential global journals, specializing in nearly 180 disciplines, according to a September report by the Ministry of Science and Technology's Institute of Scientific and Technical Information.

It was based on an analysis of papers published by Chinese scientists at home and abroad in 2022, when a total of 54,002 papers were published in 159 of the world's most influential journals covering 178 disciplines globally, and Chinese scholars contributed 16,349 papers, accounting for 30.3 percent, exceeding the US for the first time.

China is also leading the world in six scientific fields in terms of the total number of citations generated by the country's academic papers in the past decade.

The fields are agricultural science, chemistry, computer science, engineering technology, materials science and mathematics, according to the report.

The performance of Chinese papers in the world's high-quality journals indicated that China has become one of the leaders in scientific and technological innovation, says an analyst from the institute.

Alexandra Vance, CEO of the American Institute of Physics Publishing, says the international scientific community benefits from access to China's rapidly advancing research landscape, which covers an increasingly wide spectrum of disciplines, particularly of physical science.

The rapidly rising number of Chinese scientific papers has resulted in increased demand from Chinese scientists who want illustrations for their work to carry distinctive Chinese elements.

"Most popular cultural elements include tai chi, peony flowers, as well as the Monkey King and other figures from classic Chinese literature works," Wang says.

Since many Western editors or paper reviewers might not be familiar with some Chinese elements, Wang has recommended that his clients submit certain introductory words explaining the drawings, such as how they are associated with the science.

"It's fulfilling, whenever we pull off a special piece of work that combines cutting-edge scientific findings, traditional Chinese culture, and meets the expectations of the client," Wang says.

With an eye on the future, Wang is planning a book that popularizes the art of his trade.

"I think it will be good for the whole industry, helping to set business standards and gaining the attention of more customers," he says.