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This is no shell game, but a matter of life or death. The clam (left) can snap its bivalve shell shut at the first sign of a threat. The whelk (right) has evolved another strategy: The spiral shell provides a series of barricades to potential invaders. This dramatic example of two different evolutionary strategies for self-defense caught the eye of radiologist Kai-hung Fung.
To create this image Fung used a CT scanner to visualize thin slices of the whelk and clam, then rendered their contours in rainbow colors to highlight their complex structures. Creating such images involves balancing "two sides of a coin," he says. "One side is factual information, while the other side is artistic."Image credit: Kai-hung Fung, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Hong Kong
