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Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Micro Art

posted by on February 7 at 10:46 AM

Scientific American has a fascinating gallery of microphotographs up on its site. I’ve been obsessed with it all morning.

Here is a common flea at 10x magnification:

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And here is a mouse retina at 550x magnification:

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RSS icon Comments

1

Those are gorgeous.

Maybe I don't understand something about magnification, but how is possible that flea is only 10x? That seems much more than 10 times the size of a flea.

Posted by Levislade | February 7, 2007 11:11 AM
2

The objective (lens) on the microscope magnified the image 10x.

After that, the lens on the camera magnified more. Then you magnify the image from the film or image chip to whatever size you make your screen.

Hence why most scientific pictures have a size bar (i.e. this bar is 100 micrometers) rather than some fold magnification.

Posted by golob | February 7, 2007 11:30 AM
3

Thanks golob! I knew there had to be a smart science-guy on here who could set me straight.

Posted by Levislade | February 7, 2007 11:45 AM
4

No problem.

Here is one of mine, a hand colorized transmission electron micrograph of differentiating human embryonic stem cells.

Posted by golob | February 7, 2007 12:18 PM
5

Ahh...that really brings back memories from the hundreds of hours I spent in front of the confocal microscope in the Keck Center.

Posted by Frmr Rsrch Scntst | February 7, 2007 12:38 PM
6

-- this really is amazing and should be checked out, thanx for the post!

Posted by Aaro)))n Edge | February 7, 2007 1:08 PM
7

-- this really is amazing and should be checked out, thanx for the post!

Posted by Aaro)))n Edge | February 7, 2007 1:09 PM

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