World Under Electron Microscope

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A team of University of Michigan researchers has recently created a set of electron microscope images of carbon nanotube structures 
depicting images of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. John Hart, leader of the research team says it wasn't a political statement, 
but an attempt to draw attention to what is possible these days with nanotechnology, and imaging at the very small scale. 
I'll take him up on this invitation and share with you some other images of very tiny things in our world. For visualizing the scale, 
most measurements below are in microns - one micron is a millionth of a meter - human hair is approximately 100 microns thick.

1)Images of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, each made with approximately 150 million tiny carbon nanotubes, are photographed using an electron microscope by University of Michigan Mechanical Engineering Department in this image released to Reuters November 10, 2008. The image, based on an original drawing by Shepard Fairey, is just wider than 500 microns and is made of approximately 150 million tiny carbon nanotubes, which is about the number of Americans who voted on November 4, according to John Hart at University of Michigan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2)Squid Suckers, winner of Honorable Mention in the 2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Awards. Loligo pealei squids have eight arms and two tentacles, all of which are coated with suction-cups, lined with fangs composed of chitin. These tiny suckers, whose diameters are around 400 microns, ultimately allow the half-meter-long squid to get a solid grip on its environment.
 

 

 

 

3)Electron micrograph close-up of a weevil (Curculionidae family) - its snout is just over 100 microns wide.


 

4)Scanning electron microscope image of a leaf from a Black Walnut tree. Image shows a cross-section of a cut leaf, itsupper epidermal layer, mesophyll layer with palisade cells and vascular bundles, and lower epidermal layer. The protrusion at center is just over 50 microns tall.

 

 

 

5)A Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) gear train manufactured on silicon. The larger gear at center is about 80 microns wide

 

[rapchik]

6)Microalgae seen under the microscope: CO2-feeders in the ocean


7)Rime on a columnar snow crystal. Contact between the snow crystal and the supercooled droplets in the air resulted in freezing of the liquid droplets onto the surface of the crystal. Observations of snow crystals clearly show cloud droplets measuring up to 50 microns on the surface of the crystal.


8)Pollen from a variety of common plants: sunflower, morning glory, hollyhock, lily, primrose and caster bean. The largest one at center is nearly 100 microns wide. 

9)At a magnification of 94X, this is a scanning electron micrograph view of the distal clawed tip of an adult figeater beetle's leg. The insect leg is comprised of a variable number of segments, incliuding the pretarsus, seen here with a claw and spiked empodium


10)in this Harvard University photograph released October 8th, 2008, brain cells of a laboratory mouse are shown glowing with multicolor fluorescent proteins at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. The Nobel prize in chemistry was awarded to two Americans and a U.S.-based Japanese scientist for research on a glowing jellyfish protein that revolutionized the ability to study disease and normal development in living organisms.