Saturday, December 6, 2008

diatom














Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008:

This micrograph by Montana psychiatrist Stephen Nagy magnifies, by 40 times, a 20-million-year-old fossil of an extinct breed of algae.

Nagy dug up samples of this microscopic diatom in Maryland, then carefully sliced one open like a tiny pomegranate. Using a specialized microscope that uses different colors to represent depth and density, Nagy took five images and stacked them atop one another.

2 comments:

airport_whiskey said...

When I was told as a child that they used diatoms in toothpaste as an abrasive, I stopped brushing my teeth for a week. Something about it still gives me the creeps.

John M. said...

I remember hearing that! I sort of assumed that it was probably one of the more benign things they put in the stuff we consume.

I was always sketched out by rat-farts and booger-burgers.