"...by the help of Microscopes, there is nothing so small, as to escape our inquiry; hence there is a new visable World discovered to the understanding" Robert Hooke, in Micrographia ,1665
The link below will take you to the Nikon Small World Photography Competition winners. The images are incredible! I would love to be able to take images like these--it meshes my love of microscopy and photography. I've linked an image that relates to something we talked about earlier in the semester; Henrietta Lacks and her immortal HeLa cells. The image is of HeLa cells dividing. This image was the 11th place winner in the top 20. The number one winner is a fluorescence microscopy image of the heart of an Anopheles mosquito (malaria, remember?). Take a look through the images (they take some time to load). What do you think? Makes Gram staining seem very mundane!
Nikon Small World Gallery
I've changed the link. Click on this, choose 2010, look for image 11 for HeLa cells, and browse the other winners.
I am very glad you posted this blog. When you first told the class the story about Henrietta Lacks, I was intrigued. I took my time to look at all of these pictures and they are amazing. It is very interesting to see her cells divide under different types of microscopes and in different stages.
ReplyDeleteOnce again this was a very interesting blog, thanks for sharing this with the class!
I enjoyed looking at all these photos... My favorites are 1st place and 11th place. I would love to have the first one hanging in my houe because people would come over and I would say oh yes tha is my picture of an anopheles mosquito heart, the type of mosquito that carries malaria. And they would not believe me. It did not look anything like I was expecting. My other favorite was the heLa cells dividing... that would also be an amazing one to have hanging in your house... At first glance I thought they were jelly fish. This was a fun blog.
ReplyDeleteThis was my favorite blog as well. I like photography so this was interesting for me. I even went through and looked at the winnners of previous years. I dont have a particular favorite, however I also liked the cancer cells dividing, I found it interesting how something so harmful can look so peaceful.
ReplyDeleteI actually saw these a few days ago and was going to share it with the class on discussion board however the link would not work. It is amazing to see the beauty that is going on in the world that we are unable to see with our eyes. Who would ever think that a cancer cell could be considered so beautiful? And even more amazing is that this particular cancer cell comes from the lady who we were all so intrigued while learning about her. Never in a million years would I have guessed that the picture was of a microscopic cell!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, all the pictures were amazing!!
I received the email about this post and I just took a glance at it but i never actually clicked the link and looked at the images. However, when I went to yahoo, I saw the article. it amazed me cus when I looked at the pictures it was so beautiful, to see something like that with ou bare eyes, would be so amazing! Technology makes a lot of things so easy for us, we see so many things we haven't seen before. The images we see with our microscopes can't even compare to these images, they are beyond amazing!
ReplyDelete-Steph M.
I LOVE these images! I found the image of HeLa cells dividing very beautiful and interesting. I never imagined that cancer cells looked like that when they divide. Fluorescence microscopy imaging is quite interesting to me; I like all of the vibrant colors. I also thought that the image of the anopheles mosquito was pretty cool. In fact I enjoy looking at organisms through the microscope and the more we learn about microorganisms the more interested I become in Microbiology. It's a shame we don't have the budget to have a course dedicated to microscopy imaging.
ReplyDeleteI'm very glad that I was able to look at these pictures. They are absolutely amazing. I literally had no idea that people are able to take such detailed and beautiful pictures. I enjoyed all of the pictures, but a couple of my favorites were the pictures of the flea, and the HeLa cell. I had NO idea that this was how cancer cells divided much less that they were able to look this way. And as far as the flea goes, who knew a flea could look so great?!
ReplyDeleteVery awesome images, thanks for the link!
Stephanie G.
These are by far the most amazing images that I have laid my eyes on. They are phenomenal!! I love how they are of such great quality and show so so so much detail. I also love the creativity behind all of them and the beauty that they bring to my eyes. I really like the Larva head and how cool it looks as well as many others. I wish we could do something like this in our class. That would be a really cool project.Thank you for the Link. Great Blog Material.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Galicia
I definitely enjoyed this blog. The artwork & photography are sublime. It's fascinating to see the growth & the transformation of a creature in such a short amount of time. What I noticed is that we can learn so much more if we take the time to watch & observe the details of an organism's life cycle. My favorite picture has to be the very detailed picture of Daphnia and Volvox 4th Place Dr. Stephen F. Lowry 1994. The HeLa cells have proven to be a tremendous influence in microbiology. Perhaps one day we can put to use their traits for our benefits but for now we can just admire these beautiful peaces. Very awesome please post more.
ReplyDeleteJerome Basilio.
Amazing shoots, it shows that art can be found everywhere in life, whether you’re looking for it or not. I really like that these were taken by people who are not photographers. It gives it a real authentic feel because they are shooting without technique; composition, exposure, rule of three’s, ect. Just a simple click, capture, share; I’m actually pretty envious of them. I also enjoy that they are so abstract. I love shoot that you can’t tell what you’re looking at, it just give the viewer a chance to explore their inner psyche and attempt to interpret the picture. Like a subliminal Rorschach test.
ReplyDeleteI'm always impressed by the technology people come up with to view different things. Its scary to think that these cells are immortal and just keep reproducing without any end. After working with cancer patients, its kind of sad to think that their cancer might not die because its immortal. Good to kow that they have a way to test different treatments on a control.
ReplyDeleteWho said there was no beauty in science? In your face Van Gogh! Its incredible what advancements in microscopy, and photography provide. All of the photos were stunning. My favorite was actually the 7th place finisher (Endothelial cell attached to synthetic microfibers, stained with microtubules, F-actin and nuclei (2500x)). The first place finisher, and the Hela cell was amazing as well. All of theses photos, even the honorable mentions, could be hung in any gallery in my opinion. The art community should keep an eye on this new radical artistic expression. We may say a swap of talents between photographers picking up microbiology, and microbiologist picking up photography. Hopefully the two competing will capture new breath taking photos!
ReplyDeleteWell said Josh, that's the photographer in you coming out! I am very envious of them. Alan, who said there is no beauty in science? I really like the zebrafish head and the soap bubbles. But I actually like some of the Images of Distinction better than the winners. One of my favorite courses ever was the electron microscopy course in grad school. We had to take all our own images and develop them in a darkroom (which I already knew how to do). So, Alan, how old does that make me?
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved these pictures. Its unbelievable how the smallest things can be seen so clearly.
ReplyDeleteThese pictures are more than just art; they can be a very helpful tool, especially when one learns about something, and cant quite see an image for it in his/her head. For example, I just learned about olfactory bulbs in my psych 102 class. Browsing through these photos, i came across a great picture of one that was very clear and detailed. Now that I know more of what it looks like, it will help me better understand the functions, etc.
Oh what the world of Microbiology would have been today without the discovery of microscopes!
Probably nothing.
^^^^^^^^ Megan R. :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I liked the zebrafish head too, but my favorite is:
ReplyDeleteImage of Distinction, 2010
Raymond Sloss
Radiolarian (250x)
Darkfield is so space like.
Alan, I have faith that you will figure out professor Burkes age by the end of the month.
This is my favorite blog so far! All the photos are very interesting and full of color. It makes me wish we had this technology in our class lab. I was really fascinated with the HeLa cells because the idea of "immortal" cells is engraved in my mind. I think her contribution to science is phenomenal and this recognition through this photograph is very well deserved!
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ReplyDeleteI must admit this is one of my favorite blogs by far.I really enjoyed looking at all the pictures. If you never told us what those images were i would of never guessed it. When you said that we were going to see images of HeLa cells and the heart of an an anopheles mosquito heart. Both images were amazing. One thing that really stood out to me was the colors. Everything seems so vibrant and yet knowing that its an anopheles mosquito heart and Cells, I would have never known. I would actually love to have the photo of the anopheles mosquito heart in my house. So when ever someone would see it and ask me what it was, I could tell that its a mosquito heart and explain to them the cycle of malaria.I find these images to be very amazing, in a sense that in lecture we learned about them and now we are actually given an oppertunity to see them.
ReplyDeleteWow!
ReplyDeleteI thought gram staining and negative stains were hard.....i can't imagine how difficult it is to find Anopheles gambiae (mosquito) heart, or the Telophase HeLa (cancer) cells. My favorite was the Ctenocephalides canis. The flea was red and blue and almost transparent. It had spider man colors...very cool. The crystallized soy sauce was amazing as well. I see now that microscopic photography is truly and art.
WOW! These pictures are incredible! It seriously amazes me to think how far technology has come. To be honest, it kind of scares me to think of where we will be in 50 years. I looked at the HeLa cells, and I was so intrigued that I actually looked at all the pictures in the gallery. I really enjoyed looking at this blog and the pictures put a lot of things into perspective for me! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis post was an amazing use of the blog! I love photography and think it's so amazing how far we have come with technology in the fields of microscopy and photography! It's hard to believe that images as vibrant as these came from a microscope. I would never have though something microscopic has that much detail in it! I was also very excited to see the HeLa cells. I just bought the "Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," and can't wait to start reading it!
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing photographs! Every photo caught my eye because they were all so colorful and abstract. The Telophase HeLa (cancer) cell picture looks like a picture taken from 4th of July, so many bring colors which looks amazing. I never would of thought this photograph was of cancer cells. The type of technology we have today is very impressive and shocking. My other favorite picture would be the 2nd place winner, the 5-day old zebrafish head. It looks very cool with the various colors and how clear the photo is. Wow and i thought a gram positive cocci stain was cool... All these photographs are incredibly amazing!
ReplyDeleteI am amazed at how well these pictures are taken. The colors in these pictures are astonishing and I would have never thought that simple organisms can provide great art work. I especially like the HeLa cell because of the extraordinary colors they have. I am curious if people add colors to make them appear that way or if the organisms actually look like under a microscope. I would have never guessed that the winner’s image was a mosquito’s heart. All of these pictures would definitely be worth going to see at an art gallery because these organisms are all around us everyday, but we just can’t see them. The people taking these pictures have skills at making a small organism, some probably ugly, look beautiful with different techniques, and color.
ReplyDeleteWow! These images are amazing and beautiful. Microscopy looks very fun when people find these beautiful images of organism and cells that are really harmful to all of us. The cancer cells are really awesome, the way they’re shaped and how the colors make them look like a candy or toy. This blog was really fun, because I have never seen pictures like these so it was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteBefore nursing, my dreams was to work as a photographer in the movie industry. Looking at these beautiful photos is like looking at art. I had no idea there was an entire section of photography dedicated to microbial images. This is amazing to me because it combines my love of science and photography. It is like hitting two birds with one stone! (I would never hurt an animal by the way). Thank you for posting up this blog it was very interesting. It just goes to show that there are more beautiful things to life than just what we can see with the naked eye. There is this one particular photo I absolutely love , it was by Gerd Guenther and he received 18th place in 2010. It is my wall paper for my laptop! Great blog post.
ReplyDelete-Allen Rapisura
Well said Allen! Although I have never had the skills to take amazing photos with a normal camera, I have always appreciated people's ability to capture such beauty with a simple click of a camera or in this case, the skill of microscopy. I am utterly amazed at the sheer beauty and breathtaking nature of these photos. They are simply mesmerizing. I think one of the factors that especially captured my attention was the vibrance of some of the colors that were expressed on these photos. It was hard to find a favorite because as I scrolled through I kept finding more photos I loved. The most random and creative was crystallized soy sauce, but I really liked the Reakirt's blue butterfly egg on Mimosa strgillosa because of the details captured on the photo. Although this photo just received honorable mention, I really think that the details, color and the creativity expressed are quite noteworthy. Thank you for posting this blog! I really enjoyed this posting and browsing through excellence!
ReplyDeleteI thought these images were amazing!!! Who knew that cells so deadly could look so beautiful? I can’t wait until I have time to read the story about Henrietta Lacks. Technology has come a long way and it’s pretty nice that we are able to see these pictures. They are so intricate and the colors make them look even more vibrant. Of course these are so much more advanced than the gram stains we do in class. My favorites were #7 and #11. I also liked the quote by Robert Hooke. It is very true that there is a whole other world that we can’t see with our naked eye and I’m glad were now able to see it. Thank you for sharing this link. I really enjoyed browsing through all the pictures!
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