Electrons are the new photons.

August 24, 2010 6:50 AM

Electron microscope images of insects and other tiny critters. Art embedded in your microchips, under an electron microscope. Zooming in on a tooth, with the help of an electron microscope. Electron microscope checks out a record's grooves.[previously] A flower so small only those with electron microscopes can see it! Raspberry under an electron microscope! Zoom in on an ant's head, with the power of electron microscopy! An electron microscope makes a self-portrait! An electron microscope examines a leaf! Want to see something else under an electron microscope? Send it to these guys!
posted by mccarty.tim (18 comments total)

I am in no way related to the guys who take electron microscope images. No Pepsi Blue.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:53 AM on August 24, 2010

Also, pardon the !!! I was getting a bit enthused there.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:57 AM on August 24, 2010

This is very cool although it seemed obvious that the copywriter on the first link was loosing interest towards the end of the slideshow. 'Eh, it's a fly.'
posted by shakespeherian at 7:01 AM on August 24, 2010

Also, am I the only one who thinks these guys look like these fellows?
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:08 AM on August 24, 2010

"Send it to these guys! "
Excellent. Is it one per customer or can I just mail them my sample collection and credit them in my PhD thesis? That would save me SO much time in sample prep.
posted by Eumachia L F at 7:08 AM on August 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

That maggot is horrific.
posted by amro at 7:10 AM on August 24, 2010

I would like to see an electron microscope under an electron microscope.
posted by m0nm0n at 7:31 AM on August 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

BTW, I'm really not clear on what those guys mean by "send a sample." Do they mean that they'll take any raw item, and then prepare it, or do they expect that you know how to use an electron microscope, will prepare the item properly, and then it will just be a mater of them putting it in the machine?

Personally, I'd like to see how butter looks under the electron microscope, since it's an emulsion of fats, milk solids. But the postmaster says I'm not allowed to send perishable dairy in the mail anymore.
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:53 AM on August 24, 2010

I would like to see an electron microscope under an electron microscope.

You know, it takes two scales to find out how much a scale weighs.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:04 AM on August 24, 2010

So cool! Thanks for the post. The mirror SEM one is particularly cool. All of the color images are false-color, in case anyone is wondering; electrons only see in black and white.

I wish my research used the SEM more; we use a transmission electron micrograph which has considerably more resolution, but everything is 2D and looks like blobs. You can only get so excited about blobs.
posted by beepbeepboopboop at 8:23 AM on August 24, 2010

I could get excited about blobs if I had atomic resolution.
posted by Eumachia L F at 8:34 AM on August 24, 2010

The 3-D image of record grooves completely made my day.
posted by hippybear at 8:38 AM on August 24, 2010

Also, am I the only one who thinks these guys look like these fellows?

Again and again we see that the most grotesque things our minds can conceive have been done one better by Nature.

Nature. Stranger than we imagine. Stranger than we *can* imagine.
posted by Trochanter at 8:48 AM on August 24, 2010

I just can't get enough electron microscopy!!!!!
posted by kenko at 12:21 PM on August 24, 2010

I just can't get enough electron microscopy!!!!!

Well then, you'd enjoy this month's National Gee.
posted by Herodios at 12:39 PM on August 24, 2010

I would like to see an electron microscope under an electron microscope.

Your wish is granted, m0nm0n.
posted by IAmBroom at 2:54 PM on August 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

The tooth was pure mindfuck. Great post.
posted by randomyahoo at 3:12 PM on August 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Butter and other foodstuffs in a Cryo-SEM.
posted by Eumachia L F at 12:22 AM on August 25, 2010