Connecting the dots in 3D.

Computer-generated three-dimensional (3D) images are finding ever wider use in entertainment, and even scientists are increasingly using 3D images generated from image stacks acquired during serial section imaging of biological samples. Although the surface-rendering methods used in the entertainment industry are fast and mature, “biologists have a lot of image data, which is very different from surface data, and they don't have a very good renderer,” says Hanchuan Peng of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus.