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[Gaborn]

From a rusty microcanyon to a tie-dye leaf, these stunning images from the 2011 FEI Owner Image Contest use colour in inventive ways to transform snapshots from the microscopic world. New Scientist rounds-up the winners, runners-up and other striking entries.

Microcanyon

What appears as a deep crevasse is actually a mere microscopic crack in steel. Having subjected the metal to the rigours of a bend test, Martina Dienstleder of the Austrian Centre for Electron Microscopy and Nanoanalysis in Graz, decided that the results were pretty enough to photograph. Her colleague Manuel Paller then coloured the image with rusty tones and added a cloud-dotted sky to complete the look. The shot won the top prize.

(Image: Martina Dienstleder and Manuel Paller)

Alveoli network

A dense network of blood vessels in the alveoli enables the quick transfer of oxygen to the bloodstream in the lungs. Here blood cells can be seen squeezing through the narrow capillaries. Taken by professional science photographer Oliver Meckes, the image won second prize in the competition.

(Image: Oliver Meckes)

Supersized spider

An arachnophobe's worst nightmare, a spider looms large in this image, taken using a scanning electron microscope. Also by Oliver Meckes. The colourised photo highlights the goliath's beady eyes and delicate hairs at 50-times magnification.

(Image: Oliver Meckes)

Clam shell mite

Looking like a vibrant clam shell underwater, this vibrant image by Angelika Reichmann, also of the Austrian Centre for Electron Microscopy and Nanoanalysis in Graz, is actually a close-up of a mite's armoured body. Reichmann's colleague Margit Wallner coloured this photo, which claimed third prize.

(Image: Angelika Reichmann)

Polyflower

This colourful shot by nanotechnology researcher Luca Boarino of the National Institute for Meteorological Research in Torino, Italy, resembles a close-up of a psychedelic sunflower. The delicate texture was created using nanospheres of polystyrene resin. Applied to a silicone surface, capillary forces caused the spheres to crack as they dried, completing the flower look.

(Image: Luca Boarino)

Tie-dye leaf

These tattered fibres are not from a ragged tie-dyed T-shirt, but rather show an abstracted cross-section of a leaf's veins. The rainbow image was created by Daisy Lee and Craig Queenan at the Nano-Structural Imaging Lab of Bergen County Technical Schools in New Jersey.

(Image: Daisy Lee and Craig Queenan)

Glacial shell

The icy blue tones of this micrograph transform the hard surface of a seashell into a chiselled glacier. It was taken by Wesller Schmidt, a technician at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

(Image: Wesller Schmidt)

Gallery Here

I think it's neat how several of the images are COMPLETELY not what you'd think they were on first glance.

 

[Metroid Killer]

Beetle leg

Damselfly's eye

Spirogyra algae

Daddy Longlegs eyes

Microscopic Images of Pollens

Acanthus pollen

Pollen from a Forget me not petal

Smooth pollen from a pine tree.

Pink flecked green pollen

 

[Insane Metal]

Amazing photographs!

 

[SneakyStephan]

So if I understand it right most of these are manipulated by adding colors, right? (much like the hubble space images).

meh.

 

[Zyzyxxz]

Smooth pollen from a pine tree.

]

Boobs.

 

[Metroid Killer]

So if I understand it right most of these are manipulated by adding colors, right? (much like the hubble space images).

meh.

Well except for some of the shots (such as the insects ones) wavelengths of light that possess color cannot reach most of the objects depicted in microscopic photos. Most times they add color so that viewers can better distinguish what's in the photo.

Anyway more stuff!

Mouse skeletal muscle fibers

Human sperm

Velcro

 

[Chuckie]

Well except for some of the shots (such as the insects ones) wavelengths of light that possess color cannot reach most of the objects depicted in microscopic photos. Most times they add color so that viewers can better distinguish what's in the photo.

How do they decide on the color? Is it an artist expression? Or is there some scientific method to decide which color it would be if the wavelenghts would reach it?

Awesome pics anyway.

 

[Metroid Killer]

How do they decide on the color? Is it an artist expression? Or is there some scientific method to decide which color it would be if the wavelenghts would reach it?

There aren't really any standards except that the coloring is very soft most often neon-like.

The reason to add color is really just to 'sell' the photos better. When you have to present some medical report concerning T-cells you better have some images which clearly shows the T-cell.

Obviously T-cells aren't blue and you'll find them in all covers if you search on google. It's just to make them stand out and to present your ideas in a 'colorful' manner. They do try to make as much sense as possible though, or go with a theme. In the pollon shots above, notice how much green there are in the pictures solely because we are dealing with plants. And in the mouse muscle fiber shot, the actual fibers are colored red because we associate muscles with red.

Another way to capture color in microscopy is to use a fluorescence microscope. A sample is illuminated with light of a wavelength which causes fluorescence in the sample. The light emitted by fluorescence, which is at a different, longer, wavelength than the illumination, is then detected through a microscope objective. It still isn't the correct color as most of the samples are without color.

Fluorescence bloodcell

Yet another way to add color is to use stain or dye (limited to bulk tissue and cell populations) to enhance color contrasts in the microscopic images. You can say this method sometimes is more true in depicting the colors as it will enhance certain colors, other times the dye will just completely control what color the cells will have. Again it's up to each individual to decide which dyes to use, except for dyes that only work on certain sample. Some dyes have become standard for certain samples though (See Eosin for Red Blood Cells and muscle fibers).

Stained lung tissue

 

[Übermatik]

Macro fly

Macro fly

Macro leaf

Pollen

Soy Sauce

Salt and pepper

Obviously the first 3 aren't true microscopic photos, but they're interesting none-the-less.

 

[Game-Biz]

They looked shopped.

 

[Seam]

They looked shopped.

You mean in comparision with what you see in reality?

 

[Metroid Killer]

You mean in comparision with what you see in reality?

I think he's joking as pretty much all the images are colored in photoshop.

MOAR!

Caterpillar Mouth

Sperm tails tangled up

Mosquito eyes

Surface of eggshell

Bidens Ferulifolia Pollen

 

[thespot84]

gorgeous images.

Hate to nitpick but these aren't really 'nano' scale, they're mostly micro (10^-6 meters). Things wouldn't be as outwardly interesting at the nanoscale with some context because the structures would be molecular/atomic.

 

[forknknife]

I love this stuff, keep them coming guys!

 

[Metroid Killer]

Tiny friends!

Human flea

Tropical caterpillar

Dog flea

Wasp

Soldier turtle ant

Mites on mite

Waterbear

Pubic lice

6 days human embryo/egg

Most of these photos are by Steve Gschmeissner by the way. He has shot some really awesome microscopic images over the years.

 

[xbhaskarx]

Waterbear

What the hell is this thing...

 

[Metroid Killer]

What the hell is this thing...

Water bears can, among other things, survive temperatures of 303 degrees Fahrenheit and -460 degrees Fahrenheit, live for over 100 years without water, withstand over 1000 times more radiation than humans and survive ten days in outer space with no protection. Due to the small size of water bears, they have no need for any body systems that specialize in gas exchange. Therefore, they do not have a circulatory system or a respiratory system. When conditions get though, they basically die, stopping any process in their miniature bodies for up to 120 years! When conditions get better again, they revive and go on with their lives.

Cockroach bitches aint got nothing on these bears!

 

[xbhaskarx]

I'm scared...

 

[Trojita]

Kill some of these things with fire.

 

[Kettch]

Looks like Appa with no head.

 

[dtrack]

I'm suddenly very itchy :|

 

[Norua]

We're already dead.

 

[blame space]

alright, out with it: how many of those water bears do i consume every day?

 

[undu]

I'm amazed by how much it looks like a Mass Effect's Volus.

 

[Goldrusher]

Water bears can, among other things, survive temperatures of 303 degrees Fahrenheit and -460 degrees Fahrenheit, live for over 100 years without water, withstand over 1000 times more radiation than humans and survive ten days in outer space with no protection. Due to the small size of water bears, they have no need for any body systems that specialize in gas exchange. Therefore, they do not have a circulatory system or a respiratory system. When conditions get though, they basically die, stopping any process in their miniature bodies for up to 120 years! When conditions get better again, they revive and go on with their lives.

Wow.