Thomas Deerinck of the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research in La Jolla, Calif. captured HeLa (cancer) cells at 300x magnification with 2-photon fluorescence. (Thomas Deerinck)There’s more beauty in this world that can be seen by the naked eye. Don’t believe us? Whip out a microscope sometime and take a close look at the cell structures of ice, plants, synthetic materials and anything else you can get your hands on. The stunning colors and patterns that you’ll find will astound you, and these are the very subjects of Nikon’s “Small World Photomicrography” contest.Organized since 1974, this unusual photographic contest celebrates the beauty of objects that are imperceptible to the naked eye and focuses on pictures captured with a microscope, establishing a subtle balance between the complexity of the scientific techniques used to create these snapshots and the artistic quality of the resulting images.When viewing these stunning images, some of which look like works of Abstract Expressionism one might see hanging in a modern art museu, it’s easy to forget that these portraits, however artistic, are part of a crucial process of scientific research that often leads to discoveries in the medical or industrial fields. Besides the obvious aesthetic considerations, the contest highlights the confocal methods, fluorescence techniques, differential interference contrast, polarized lights systems and other highly sophisticated methods used by scientists to study and analyze our world.We made a selection of the most beautiful images created by these artists in lab coats:Graphite-bearing granulite from Kerala, India in polarized light at 2.5x magnification by Dr. Bernardo Cesare of the Department of Geosciences in Padova, Italy. (Dr. Bernardo Cesare)
A mouse nerve fiber layer on a retinal flatmount at 40x magnification by Gabriel Luna of the UC Santa Barbara Neuroscience Research Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif. using the laser confocal scanning method. (Gabriel Luna)A living specimen of Melosira moniliformis at 320x magnification imaged with differential interference contrast by Frank Fox of Fachhochschule Trier in Trier, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. (Frank Fox)A blade of grass at 200x magnification by Dr. Donna Stolz of the University of Pittsburgh using confocal stack reconstruction and autofluorescence. (Dr. Donna Stolz)The surface of a microchip in a 3D reconstruction at 500x magnification using incident light and Normarski interference contrast by Alfred Pasieka of Germany. (Alfred Pasieka)Intrinsic fluorescence in Lepidozia reptans (liverwort) at 20x magnification in a live mount with confocal microscopy by Dr. Robin Young of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. (Dr. Robin Young)Cracked gallium arsenide solar cell films at 50x magnification using the brightfield method by Dennis Callahan of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. (Dennis Callahan)A curare vine (Chondrodendron tomentosum) in cross-section at 45x magnification was shot by Dr. Stephen S. Nagy of Montana Diatoms in Helena, Montana using the brightfield method and digitally inverted. (Dr. Stephen S. Nagy)[via The Big Picture]
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