Amazing Electron Microscope Images

Here are some stunning images captured by the CSIRO's scanning electron microscope of various insects, pollen, and minerals providing a clear window on what are otherwise amazing invisible landscapes.

Pulled into stunning close-up by CSIRO physicist John Ward with the aid of a scanning electron microscope, insects normally invisible to the naked eye loom larger and more alarmingly than the biggest and most intimidating creatures that walk or fly the planet.

News source: Creepy critters up close and terrifying

CSIRO's site

These images were first released in March of this year, so it's sort of old news.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the imagery.


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Above are about 24 of 43 images available here: Amazing Electron Microscope Images (gallery)

And here is a video explaining the workings of a scanning electron microscope (from a source unaffiliated with CSIRO). Here David McCarthy from the School of Pharmacy in London discusses how he is able to obtain such clear photos of 'copolymer nanospheres.' It gives some insight into how the images above were taken.


www.csiro.au...

I also found this to be interesting - the surface of the eye of a housefly:

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Beautiful photos! The sharpness and vivid coloration enhance the photos quite well. Actually, the ants and flies look rather descent up close compared to the other critters. The dragonfly head looks like a face within a face if you take a closer look. And to think we humans are beautiful is a far cry from these microscopic wonders.

I just love these "amazing image" threads on ATS, Don't you?

Awesome!

It can happen just like this.

Would you like the decoding formulas found so far, and to see what has been decoded?

Everything has a price.

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Seriously, cool pics.

Awesome. Viewing some of the photos oddly reminded me of the movie "Honey I Shrunk the Kids"

Thanks for sharing

Originally posted by Fractured.Facade
I just love these "amazing image" threads on ATS, Don't you?

Awesome!

Thanks, I thought they were great as well. You might also like another thread of mine then:

Mandelbrot to Mandelbulb - 3D Infinity

This thread is kind of a parallel to that one regarding the exploration highly detailed and almost infinitely miniscule landscapes.

Wow!! Thanks, these are quite fascinating. I love insects and seeing them close up gives me a whole new respect for how sacred each and every living thing really is.

great post! fascinating.

it's so wild that there's that whole world which is typically inaccessible to us because of our size. it really relates to those youtube videos zooming from, like, the inside of an electron all the way out to a lyman alpha blob. is our solar system, or even our galaxy like the bottom of a fly's foot compared to the rest of the universe ... or even more? so trippy.

reply to post by Evasius


Oh yes, I remember those, simply stunning.

Infinity has a beginning and an end.

How alien!!!

It really puts things in perspective in the sense that even though they are tiny, they are still just as complex creatures as the bigger animals.

Some of the pictures are creepy, for sure. I'm sending this to a few friends. Electron microscopes can produce some fascinating photos. I'll have to pick one up next time i'm at walmart.

Great find!

Another interesting article with amazing imagery is from 'The Big Picture' section from boston.com:

Peering into the micro world

Here are a few of my favourites, I especially like the 'columnar snow crystal.'

Beetle's Claw
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~At a magnification of 94X, this is a scanning electron micrograph view of the distal clawed tip of an adult figeater beetle's leg. The insect leg is comprised of a variable number of segments, incliuding the pretarsus, seen here with a claw and spiked empodium. (CDC/Janice Carr)

Columnar Snow Crystal
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7Rime on a columnar snow crystal. Contact between the snow crystal and the supercooled droplets in the air resulted in freezing of the liquid droplets onto the surface of the crystal. Observations of snow crystals clearly show cloud droplets measuring up to 50 microns on the surface of the crystal. (Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture)

Pyralidae Moth
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Scanning electron microscope image of a pyralidae moth, a side view of its head and curled proboscis. Its eye is about 800 microns wide. (Dartmouth Electron Microscope Facility/Dartmouth College)

Assortment of Plant Pollens
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Pollen from a variety of common plants: sunflower, morning glory, hollyhock, lily, primrose and caster bean. The largest one at center is nearly 100 microns wide. (Dartmouth Electron Microscope Facility/Dartmouth College)

great pics


this just proves we can be living in a dimension in a way we cant perceive others dimensions

just like the "fish dimension"

we can be part of a much bigger system that we may never be able to reach

World's smallest Toilet:

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This photo seems to be like a toilet won the Most Bizarre award at The 49th International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photo Beam Technology and Nanofabrication Bizarre/Beautiful Micrograph competition. Takahashi Kaito took this SEM, a Scanning Electron Micrograph, of integrated circuit fabrication at 15,000X magnification using an electron microscope, while on the job at SII Nanotechnology Inc, Oyama, Shizuoka, Japan.

source

Electric Guitar String
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...as viewed through an electron microscope.

Some more cool imagery:

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Acmopyle pancheri ovule development[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8756e5653ce6.jpg[/atsimg]

Aeschynanthus hildebrandii corolla hairs[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/52fb40348993.jpg[/atsimg]

Hairs on seed of Rochelia persica[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2a6fcad2aca8.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by Schmidt1989


I agree - better yet I'll check eBay.

Wonder what the postage alone would be on one of these:

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These photos are the first I have every seen from an electron microscope. These really put our world into perspective. I will always be amazed with how complex the living world really is.

Cheers

reply to post by who_sright?


Well you've been missin' out - anyway these latest are probably the best I've seen. Most are black and white (and very grainy), but these particular ones from the CSIRO received extra special care, colourization, and enhancement.

Just google search scanning electron microscope images and heaps will come up.

"Claw" that opens and closes when a voltage is applied: (the huge shadows are probes)

Microscale Capacitors (the width of one is a few micrometers)

The capacitors from a different perspective.

This one is a gauge that moves an amount that depends on how strong a voltage is applied:

This thing was supposed to rotate back and forth when a voltage was applied but it didn't work; it just would flex a bit.

This is what happens when you are careless with the probes (I accidentally rammed one into this thing, it's supposed to be rectangular :p)

I've got a couple more, but they're mostly just shots of the same things from different angles. I know they cannot compete with the earlier amazing pictures, but I like these pictures because they are pictures I took with an electron microscope of things I made myself back in 2006 when I was studying engineering.

Originally posted by Fractured.Facade
reply to post by Evasius

 

Oh yes, I remember those, simply stunning.

Infinity has a beginning and an end.

Check the image of the fly eye again. Notice how the light appears on the texture.

From the largest planets to the smallest speck on the eye of a common fly, Light reacts the same. The shadows are just as perfect, the reflections are just as profound.

Infinity certainly doesnt appear to have a beginning or an end when you consider light

(I just found that personally amazing, how light works seeing that image)