A still image from a 3-D animation shows how nicotine stimulates nerve impulses to the pleasure center of the brain.

Donna DeSmet and Jason Guerrero of Hurd Studios won the first-place prize in the noninteractive media category of the 2007 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge for the video, titled "Nicotine: The Physiologic Mechanism of Tobacco Dependence."

Not seen here is "Towers in the Tempest," an animation of soaring hurricane clouds, which earned Gregory W. Shirah and Lori K. Perkins of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center an honorable mention in the noninteractive media category.

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