Scientific Visualization of Physical Phenomena reflects the special emphasis of the Computer Graphics Society's Ninth International Conference, held at the MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA in June, 1991. This volume contains the proceedings of the conference, which, since its foundation in 1983, continues to attract high quality research articles in all aspects of Computer Graphics and its applications. Visualization in science and engineering is rapidly developing into a vital area because of its potential for significantly contributing to the understanding of physical processes and the design automation of man-made systems. With the increasing emphasis in handling complicated physical and artificial processes and systems and with continuing advances in specialized graphics hardware and processing software and algorithms, visualization is expected to play an increasingly dominant role in the foreseeable future.

VNP is structured so users do not have to access the CD-ROM in order to take advantage of the book's content. However, it is highly recommended that users to refer to the book and disc in tandem when working through the materials in order to fully benefit from the interactive learning experience this package provides.

This book addresses key issues concerning visualization in the teaching and learning of science at any level in educational systems. It is the first book specifically on visualization in science education. The book draws on the insights from cognitive psychology, science, and education, by experts from five countries. It unites these with the practice of science education, particularly the ever-increasing use of computer-managed modelling packages.

This is the first book written on using Blender (an open-source visualization suite widely used in the entertainment and gaming industries) for scientific visualization. It is a practical and interesting introduction to Blender for understanding key parts of 3D rendering that pertain to the sciences via step-by-step guided tutorials. Any time you see an awesome science animation in the news, you will now know how to develop exciting visualizations and animations with your own data. 3D Scientific Visualization with Blender takes you through an understanding of 3D graphics and modeling for different visualization scenarios in the physical sciences. This includes guides and tutorials for: understanding and manipulating the interface; generating 3D models; understanding lighting, animation, and camera control; and scripting data import with the Python API. The agility of Blender and its well organized Python API make it an exciting and unique visualization suite every modern scientific/engineering workbench should include. Blender provides multiple scientific visualizations including: solid models/surfaces/rigid body simulations; data cubes/transparent/translucent rendering; 3D catalogs; N-body simulations; soft body simulations; surface/terrain maps; and phenomenological models. The possibilities for generating visualizations are considerable via this ever growing software package replete with a vast community of users providing support and ideas.

Visualization in scientific computing is getting more and more attention from many people. Especially in relation with the fast increase of com puting power, graphic tools are required in many cases for interpreting and presenting the results of various simulations, or for analyzing physical phenomena. The Eurographics Working Group on Visualization in Scientific Com puting has therefore organized a first workshop at Electricite de France (Clamart) in cooperation with ONERA (Chatillon). A wide range of pa pers were selected in order to cover most of the topics of interest for the members of the group, for this first edition, and 26 of them were presented in two days. Subsequently 18 papers were selected for this volume. 1'he presentations were organized in eight small sessions, in addition to discussions in small subgroups. The first two sessions were dedicated to the specific needs for visualization in computational sciences: the need for graphics support in large computing centres and high performance net works, needs of research and education in universities and academic cen tres, and the need for effective and efficient ways of integrating numerical computations or experimental data and graphics. Three of those papers are in Part I of this book. The third session discussed the importance and difficulties of using stan dards in visualization software, and was related to the fourth session where some reference models and distributed graphics systems were discussed. Part II has five papers from these sessions.

Scientific visualization is concerned with exploring data and information insuch a way as to gain understanding and insight into the data. This is a fundamental objective of much scientific investigation. To achieve this goal, scientific visualization utilises aspects in the areas of computergraphics, user-interface methodology, image processing, system design, and signal processing. This volume is intended for readers new to the field and who require a quick and easy-to-read summary of what scientific visualization is and what it can do. Written in a popular andjournalistic style with many illustrations it will enable readers to appreciate the benefits of scientific visualization and how current tools can be exploited in many application areas. This volume is indispensible for scientists and research workers who have never used computer graphics or other visual tools before, and who wish to find out the benefitsand advantages of the new approaches.

This is the first book written on using Blender (an open-source visualization suite widely used in the entertainment and gaming industries) for scientific visualization. It is a practical and interesting introduction to Blender for understanding key parts of 3D rendering that pertain to the sciences via step-by-step guided tutorials. Any time you see an awesome science animation in the news, you will now know how to develop exciting visualizations and animations with your own data. 3D Scientific Visualization with Blender takes you through an understanding of 3D graphics and modeling for different visualization scenarios in the physical sciences. This includes guides and tutorials for: understanding and manipulating the interface; generating 3D models; understanding lighting, animation, and camera control; and scripting data import with the Python API. The agility of Blender and its well organized Python API make it an exciting and unique visualization suite every modern scientific/engineering workbench should include. Blender provides multiple scientific visualizations including: solid models/surfaces/rigid body simulations; data cubes/transparent/translucent rendering; 3D catalogs; N-body simulations; soft body simulations; surface/terrain maps; and phenomenological models. The possibilities for generating visualizations are considerable via this ever growing software package replete with a vast community of users providing support and ideas.