Incredible details of 1 to 5nm (nanometer) in size can be detected
1. Red Blood Cells
They look like little cinnamon candies here, but they're actually the most common type of blood cell in the human body - red blood cells (RBCs). These biconcave-shaped cells have the tall task of carrying oxygen to our entire body; in women there are about 4 to 5 million RBCs per micro liter (cubic millimeter) of blood and about 5 to 6 million in men.. People who live at higher altitudes have even more RBCs because of the low oxygen levels in their environment.Click to view largeDownload full size (53 KB)2. Split End of Human Hair
Regular trimmings to your hair and good conditioner should help to prevent this unsightly picture of a split end of a human hair.
Click to view largeDownload full size (55 KB)
3. Purkinje Neurons
Of the 100 billion neurons in your brain. Purkinje (pronounced purr-kin-jee) neurons are some of the largest. Among other things, these cells are the masters of motor coordination in the cerebellar cortex. Toxic exposure such as alcohol and lithium, autoimmune diseases, genetic mutations including autism and neurodegenerative diseases can negatively affect human Purkinje cells.Click to view largeDownload full size (69 KB)
4. Hair Cell in the Ear
Here's what it looks like to see a close-up of human hair cell stereo cilia inside the ear. These detect mechanical movement in response to sound vibrations.Click to view largeDownload full size (68 KB)5. Blood Vessels Emerging from the Optic Nerve
In this image, stained retinal blood vessels are shown to emerge from the black-colored optic disc. The optic disc is a blind spot because no light receptor cells are present in this area of the retina where the optic nerve and retinal blood vessels leave the back of the eye.
6. Tongue with Taste Bud
This colour-enhanced image depicts a taste bud on the tongue. The human tongue has about 10,000 taste buds that are involved with detecting salty, sour, bitter, sweet and savory taste perceptions. Thai people have very few -- most killed by eating spicy food.
Click to view largeDownload full size (69 KB)7. Tooth Plaque
Brush your teeth often because this is what the surface of a tooth with a form of corn-on-the-cob plaque looks like.Click to view largeDownload full size (120 KB)
8. Blood Clot
Remember that picture of the nice, uniform shapes of red blood cells you just looked at? Well, here's what it looks like when those same cells get caught up in the sticky web of a blood clot. The cell in the middle is a white blood cell.Click to view largeDownload full size (78 KB)9. Alveoli in the Lung
This is what a colour-enhanced image of the inner surface of your lung looks like. The hollow cavities are alveoli; this is where gas exchange occurs with the blood.Click to view largeDownload full size (46 KB)
10. Lung Cancer Cells
This image of warped lung cancer cells is in stark contrast to the healthy lung in the previous pictureClick to view largeDownload full size (55 KB)
11. Villi of Small Intestine
Villi in the small intestine increase the surface area of the gut, which helps in the absorption of food. Look closely and you will see some food stuck in one of the crevices.Click to view largeDownload full size (75 KB)12. Human Egg with Coronal Cells
This image is of a purple, colour-enhanced human egg sitting on a pin. The egg is coated with the zona pellicuda, a glycoprotein that protects the egg but also helps to trap and bind sperm. Two coronal cells are attached to the zona pellicuda.Click to view largeDownload full size (72 KB)
13. Sperm on the Surface of a Human Egg
Here's a close-up of a number of sperm trying to fertilize an egg.Click to view largeDownload full size (67 KB)
14. Human Embryo and Sperm
It looks like the world at war, but it is actually five days after the fertilisation of an egg, with some remaining sperm cells still sticking around. This fluorescent image was captured using a confocal microscope. The embryo and sperm cell nuclei are stained purple while sperm tails are green. The blue areas are gap junctions, which form connections between the cells.Click to view largeDownload full size (26 KB)
Colored Image of a 6 day old Human Embryo Implanting itself onto the wall of the womb15.
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I'm consistently amazed and fascinated by the human body. I mean, sure, animals in general - nature in general - but really, my experience of my body is a source of endless "wow!" moments. For instance, just now, I was working hard at my computer. Unbeknownst to me, my dog had taken up residence directly behind me, sleeping soundly. I had to get up to grab my wallet to make yet another painful business purchase. Perhaps lost in thought, I just stood up as I've done countless times, with the intent to head towards the kitchen.
Finger healing after cutting it last week carving a pumpkin. Watching Louis Theroux rap on the radio on Ye Olde MacBooke.
Experimenting with quick 'n' easy upload feature of iPhone app for Posterous.
Easiest meal in the world: microwaved garden burger patties with Sri Racha sauce.
Snail on a brick. Nice nautilus dude!
An Anatomical Guide to Monsters, 1967. Text: Shoji Otomo. Illustrator: Shogo Endo.
Beautifully illustrated. If anyone can find a copy, we’ll take it!
via huntinglodge.no
My work explores two fundamental themes.
One is the fundamental creativity of science and the other is an
exploration of what makes us 'human'.
The latter seems like a straightforward question to answer as we 'know it
when we see it'. However, on deeper reflection, it is important to ask
ourselves what qualities are we interested in when attempting to describe
our humanity. Are these qualities Anatomical? Cultural? Genetic?
Informational? Intellectual? Emotional? Spiritual? Psychological and do
these attributes apply only in particular contexts ... for example, if we
happen to be born in space, are we still human? And why?
Sociologist Steve Fuller remarks on the frivolity of reaching a definition
of Human v.2.0 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2160815834239891699
which has been attempted by many observers such as,Ray Kurtzweil
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/singularity/
with the advent of advanced technologies, since we haven't agreed on a
definition of Human 1.0!
So ... I wanted to share a passage from my favourite book 'The Chrysalids'
by John Wyndham, First published by Michael Joseph 1955, Published in
Pengin Books 1958 p 79-80
For those who don't know the book, it's a post nuclear portrait of an
anguished community in America where the chance of breeding 'true' are
less than fifty percent and where deviations are rooted out and destroyed
as offences and abominations.
The passage is a conversation between a boy called David (narrator) and
his uncle ...
"... What do you think it is that makes a man a man?"
I started on the Definition. He cut me off after five words.
"It is not!" he said. "A wax figure could have all that, and he'd still be
a wax figure, wouldn't he?"
"I suppose he would."
"Well, then, what makes a man a man is something inside him."
"A soul?" I suggested.
"No," he said, "souls are just counters for churches to collect, all the
same value, like nails. No, what makes a man man is mind; it's not a
thing, it's a quality, and minds aren't all the same value; they're better
or worse, and the better they are, the more they mean. See where we're
going?"
"No," I admitted.
Having trained as a doctor at both Cambridge and Oxford, my career as a
doctor has been far from conventional. My concern for patients disfigured
by the scars of leprosy led me on a journey that questioned assumptions
about what 'normal' human anatomy is, or indeed, whether there is anything
'natural' about us at all. Over the last ten years I have collaborated
with radical performance artists such as Orlan & Stelarc, which have
revealed new portraits of human identity and which have lead to my current
work that challenges notions of 'life' itself.
This image, courtesy of Stelarc, is from a project
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/extra_ear/index.htm that aimed to create an
EXTRA EAR which is a soft prosthesis situated on the underbelly of the
left forearm of the artist. Initially, the ear was imagined as not an
organ for listening, but an organ for transmitting sounds.
"The EXTRA EAR would mimic the actual ear in shape and structure, and in
addition it could have different functions. Imagine an ear that cannot
hear but emits sounds. With an implanted sound chip and a proximity sensor
it would speak to anyone who would get close to it. (Or if no-one got
close it would whisper sweet nothings to the other ear anyway). Also,
connected to a modem and a wearable computer it could broadcast RealAudio
sounds to augment the local sounds that the actual ears hear. The EXTRA
EAR becomes a kind of Internet antenna that telematically and acoustically
scales up one of the bodys senses."(Stelarc
2006)http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/
Although the organ itself is a work in progress, awaiting further
remodelling using biotechnological techniques to create the complex
fleshiness of the pinna for purely aesthetic purposes, its design
anticipates the implantation of a miniature microphone that connects to a
Bluetooth transmitter, which will enable the ear in any wifi hotspot to
become internet enabled. When the project is completed people can hear
what the ear is listening to and the EXTRA EAR would become a publicly
accessible acoustical organ for people in other places. Humans have
evolved soft internal organs to function more efficiently in the natural
world and are able to engineer additional external organs more suited to
the technological terrain they now inhabit. The EXTRA EAR may also be
thought of as part of an extended Bluetooth system where it would be
possible to speak to the person telephoning through the EXTRA EAR but
because the receiver and speaker would be embedded in the artist's mouth
he would hear the caller's voice in his head. If the artist kept his mouth
closed he would hear the caller's voice in private but if he opened his
mouth and someone was close by, the observer would hear the voice of the
caller coming from the artists mouth.
These arts projects not only challenge the assumptions that we have about
our anatomical capabilites but also raise questions about our
connectedness.
Which is anything other than simple.
