Discuss Design for Science

Cosmic Variance, one of the most popular science blogs online, recently put out a call for ideas for graphics illustrating the Higgs mechanism and Supersymmetry. That's right, not the designs themselves, just discussion of existing graphics and concepts for improvements. "When designing a graphic to entice the interest of the scientifically interested public, what better than to actually ask that audience what they like?" Granted, this is a niche audience, but soliciting assistance from potentially hundreds of non-designers hardly seems the most productive route towards creating a graphic solution—I'm sure the designer who eventually has to filter these numerous responses is none too thrilled. Inevitably, low-level chaos ensues as people try to talk out their ideas in what is surely one of the stranger collisions of graphic design, science and critque in recent memory.