Behind the Cover: July 2023

Each month, Physics Today editors explore the research and design choices that inspired the latest cover of the magazine.

Algae often make headlines for their consequences to coastlines. Recent algal blooms have covered most of Lake Okeechobee in Florida and killed hundreds of marine mammals off the coast of California .

Yet algae also help keep the oceans healthy. For example, giant kelp, which are featured on the cover of the July issue of Physics Today, provide food and shelter to lobsters, sea otters, and other animals.

In the July cover story, Chuanmin Hu, an oceanographer at the University of South Florida, lays out the different ways algae are studied. Going out on the water to collect specimens by hand is complemented by recent technological advances that allow satellites to identify algae by the unique absorption spectra of their pigments. The field of ocean optics has been used to forecast the locations of harmful algal blooms to keep the residents of coastal towns safe.

Although Hu’s article covers a variety of algae, the Physics Today editorial team felt that a close-up image of sunlit kelp would be a stunning visual. The magazine’s art director, Freddie Pagani, enhanced the colors slightly to accentuate the contrast between the green of the algae and the blue of the water.

For the text, Pagani picked the font Viva Std because it reminded her of algae and has a playful look. She added a diffused drop shadow to mimic the flash of a camera creating shadows on the background blades of kelp.