About this site

The site is designed as a resource base for scientists, clinicians and students. It is not meant to be a "course" but the reader will find much practical information about technique and applications of scientific imaging methods. It is a commitment to the long held notion of scholarship - freely shared information - by authors keen to see knowledge preserved.

This site is deliberately very image intense - and therefore runs as slow as a tortoise ;-) Be patient - the images are worth it. The nature of the topics discussed on the site is such that resolution and colour fidelity are critical issues - unfortunately these are both major limitations of the Web. Wherever possible "web safe colours" and JPEG compressions have been used, and click-on enlargements, or comparisons for size/colour have been included.

Currency and access versus credibility

There are, and have been, excellent texts on medical and scientific imaging - either as books or journal articles. Such publications usually have the merit of being edited and peer reviewed and are therefore completely accurate and credible. Unfortunately because of the 'niche' nature of the market they are often 'short run' publications, quickly out of print and then inaccessible. Even our Journals disappear - the much loved and excellent Journal of Biological Photography for example. It may be that in the fullness of time we find that the preservation of knowledge as print on paper, accessible through publicly funded library systems, remains the best way of ensuring archival longevity; but for the moment timely accessibility remains a problem.

Publication on the web has the merit of being timely and universally available but the ease of self-publishing has lead to the situation where the content of many web sites is often of dubious accuracy, authenticity or value. Many 'personal' web sites disappear as servers move or are not maintained. There is also unfortunately the problem of information overload to the point of being problematic. A search using a decent engine like Google (www.google.com) yields for example over 71,000 references to infrared photography and nearly 16,000 to ultraviolet photography.

All of the important information contained on this site has passed scholarly scrutiny - in many instances published in peer reviewed and edited Journals over the years, frequently presented at international conferences and sometimes published as long standing textbooks. This site represents the merger of the old and the new worlds of information dissemination: a combination of the rigour and credibility of peer reviewed and referenced work with the convenience and currency of electronic distribution.

Contributing to this site

This site is a voluntary commitment on the part of a few committed individuals. The founding authors/editors are Prof Robin Williams and Gigi Williams who would like to acknowledge the massive contribution made to the body of knowledge in medical and scientific photography by countless individuals over many decades. Without the selfless contribution made by those friends, colleagues and mentors this site would not have been possible.

Many others have contributed to the establishment of this site, including Lawrence Martin (the webmaster), the staff of The Department of Creative Media at RMIT - especially Greg Humphries, and the staff of the Educational Resources Centre at the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne.

If you would be interested in contributing sections to the site dealing with your particular sphere of expertise - or just hot linking to your site - please don't hesitate to contact us. The founding authors hope very much that in this way the site will grow and become more useful. Hopefully this site will extend the audience for important information on medical & scientific imaging.

Intellectual property

Please respect the intellectual property contained on this site. Do not copy or re-use the images without the written authority of the authors. Always credit this site where it was the source of your information.

Wherever possible appropriate attribution has been given for all images; failure to do so is purely omission, or our inability to trace sources. If you discover errors or omissions please let us know and we will correct them.

Disclaimer

The authors of this site are all highly credentialed experts in their field but the work on which these publications are based may or may not have been undertaken at the authors' current place of employment, or indeed the current host institution of this site. RMIT University, The Royal Childrens Hospital or indeed any Institution affiliated with the authors of the chapters are therefore neither responsible, nor liable for the information contained on this site.