The Winogradsky column, invented by Sergei Winogradsky, consists in a transparent cylinder for analyzing microbial life by observing how the metabolism of micro-organisms evolve over time in stratified layers. By producing a small closed ecosystem, the column enables observing how bacteria can survive by providing a temporal and spatial visualization of layers such as in ecology, microbiology. Sources: The Microbiome of Your Gut Winogradsky Column—Microbial Evolution in a Bottle S. Kuznetsov, W. Harrigan-Anderson, H. Faste, S.E. Hudson, E. Paulos, Community engagements with living sensing systems, Proceedings of the 9th ACM Conference on Creativity & Cognition C&C'2013, ACM Press, pp. 213-222.

Evan Atherton created a LED-based 3D ball rendering visual effects from sound while diffusing the music through small cones of the device. This has been produced with a high-resolution 3D printer. LumiGeek developed an application to control the device, such as for playing music. Independently of that usage, the device could be envisioned to produce 3D spherical visualisation, a promising area according to the references below, both mathematically and interactively. Sources: Michael Gorman, 3D printed speakers give you a custom light show to go with your tunes Evan Atherton, 3D Printed Speaker Enclosures (With Lights!) Philip Leonga, Simon Carlileb, Methods for spherical data analysis and visualization, Journal of Neuroscience Methods, Volume 80, Issue 2, 30 April 1998, pp. 191–200. Karla Vega, Eric Wernert, Patrick Beard, Tassie Gniady, David Reagan, Michael J. Boyles, Chris Eller, Visualization on Spherical Displays: Challenges and Opportunities, Proceedings of the IEEE VIS 2014 Arts Program, VISAP'14: Art+Interpretation (Paris, November 9-14, 2014), pp. 108-116.