This issue of Interface Focus is a collection of papers arising out of a Royal Society Discussion meeting entitled ‘Understanding images in biological and computer vision’. This two-day meeting brought together researchers from the fields of biological and computer vision, robotics, neuroscience, computer science and psychology to discuss the most recent developments in the field. The event was divided into four themes: vision for action, visual appearance, vision for recognition and machine learning.

This issue, organised by Catherine Charlwood, Russell G. Foster and Sally Shuttleworth, takes a multidisciplinary approach to sleep and stress research. The topic is considered from both a historical and modern-day scientific perspective, with the articles spanning the sciences and humanities. The historical papers focus on literature and history from the medieval period to the early twentieth century, whereas the scientific papers look at current challenges and perspectives.

New laser scanning technologies are set to revolutionize the way in which we measure and understand changes in ecosystem structure and function. Forest ecosystems present a particular challenge because of their scale, complexity and structural dynamics. This theme issue on ‘The terrestrial laser scanning revolution in forest ecology’ has been organized by Mark Danson, Mathias Disney, Rachel Gaulton and Crystal Schaa.

Ten years ago, a group of scientists published the roadmap Seeding the EuroPhysiome: A Roadmap to the Virtual Physiological Human. This triggered a major investment in research in the virtual physiological human (VPH), which is the subject of the theme issue organised by Alfons Hoekstra, Frank Gijsen, Ed van Bavel, Marie Siebes and Liesbet Geris.