Share Animal Pictures: For Animal Lovers

[BillTre]

 

[BillTre]

Opps. Left out the caption. Its a fossil crinoid. Like an upside-down star fish (sea star) on a stem.

 

[berkeman]

Opps. Left out the caption. Its a fossil crinoid. Like an upside-down star fish (sea star) on a stem.

Looks like the movie Alien...

 

[BillTre]

Tartigrade:

 

[symbolipoint]

BillTre,
Was that microscopic fancy-lit picture organism photographed using some digital type software, or was using photographic film?

 

[BillTre]

They probably used a digital video camera mounted on a microscope with the fancy contrast optics (like phase contrast).

 

[Andy Resnick]

They probably used a digital video camera mounted on a microscope with the fancy contrast optics (like phase contrast).

The optics aren't that complicated- just imaging through crossed polarizers. The way colors are generated is a little tricky, but basically result from what is left when a narrowband portion of of the illumination spectrum is rejected (because of the 'retardance' of the material). The poster used a basic petrographic setup, you can get similar rainbow colors from hair/bone/teeth, anything birefringent with a vaguely crystalline structure.

 

[DaveE]

polychromatic polarizing microscopy is a bit more complex than conventional polarization microscopy (the one with crossed polarizers and a waveplate). In PPM, instead of a simple polarizer in front of the illumination they construct a different polarization state for each wavelength for the illumination. At least that's how I think it works, I'm certainly no expert. You can read about it in this patent.

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/13/76/77/be4559922a6c31/US9625369.pdf