Tag: Scanning Electron Microscope

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Arty Awesomeness Eating and Drinking Featured Science & Technology Weirdness

Food as Seen Through an Electron Microscope

We’re big fans of how the scanning electron microscope can show the smallest of details. If you liked the last set of in-depth SEM images, you may like the works of Caren Alpert.

As a child, Alpert was fascinated with the back-page quiz of “3-2-1 Contact” Magazine, a quiz that tasked the viewer to identify the items in a selection of close-up images. The photographer (and food lover) has always been interested in the smaller details and has been photographing food for over eight years. After seeing an image taken with an SEM, Alpert was inspired to use the scientific equipment to capture images of the foods that we ingest on a regular basis. The magnification is between 45 and 850 times and the resulting images look like alien landscapes, delicious alien landscapes. Her project is entitled Terra Cibus and can be viewed on her website, which you can find through Google.

[via Laughing Squid]

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Animal Kingdom Arty Awesomeness Featured Science & Technology Weirdness

Amazing Electron Microscope Images

A photomicrograph (or micrograph) is an image that is taken through a microscope, and we’ve covered a few of those on the blog including Nikon’s “Small World” competition, a traveller’s tale in a strange microscopic world, and an incredibly close-up look at insects. If you missed any of those, click here to see them.

North American scientific instruments company, FEI, is in the business of supplying electron microscopes to a various industries and it is the fantastic images taken by their line of scanning electron microscope (or SEM), that we’ll show you today. According FEI, their SEMs can magnify 20 to 1,000,000 times better a light microscope and can be used in tasks that contain long scientific words such as 3D cellular ultrastructure, macromolecular localization, and 3D tissue imaging.  The proof is really in the details. Hit the jump to see some of the FEI’s microscopic images.

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Arty Awesomeness Featured Photoworthy

Exploring the MicroWorlds of Alan Jaras

You may recall research scientist and microscopist Alan Jaras and his fantastic photos of light refracting through various textured objects. If not, you can refresh your memory here.

I didn’t notice this on my last trip to his Flickr profile but Jaras had access to a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Between 2005 and 2007, he used the device to create a story about a group of travellers who land on a microscopic world and explore the alien environment. Have a look at some images from his MicroWorlds set after the jump.

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Arty Awesomeness Featured Photoworthy Science & Technology Weirdness

Zoom and Enhance: Incredibly Close-up Insect Images

Word around the scientific cooler is that the Scanning Electron Microscope (or SEM) can magnify images 250 times better than a light microscope. The expensive bit of kit valued up to 500,000 pounds blasts materials with a high-energy beam of electrons and the messages sent back build up a super-detailed image.

Retired scientific photographer Steve Gschmeissner gets to play with this high-tech toy and has produced some amazing close-up images of insects. Check out some of his shots after the jump.

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