Love Is in the Air

Hello ATS

I just stumbled on a spectacular site and thought i`d share some of that with you. The pictures i like to present to you are from Martin Oeggerli a molecular biologist, photographer and artist. He opens up new perspectives on the lives of the tiniest lifeforms. Using a scanning electron microscope, he takes for example images of pollen and bacteria before painstakingly colouring them electronically.

This is just a tiny fraction of his work the rest you can see on his gallery here.

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Snowball blossom
Lodged in the rumpled tissue of a Viburnum tinus stigma, pollen grains from other snowball blossoms (gray) swell with moisture. One (at center) is already growing the tube that delivers sperm to the ovule. Other species' pollen (yellow and green) has landed amiss; genetic defenses exclude them from the fertilization race.

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The size of the grains is measured in millionths of a meter, but the romantic journeys of pollen are epic. The dozens of golden grains that have successfully reached a Geranium phaeum flower's stigma must compete to be among the few that achieve fertilization.

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Flowering quince
The convoluted surface of Chaenomeles sp. pollen may speed up moisture absorption when the grain lands on a target bloom. "Quick hydration means faster formation of the pollen tube," says Swiss photographer Martin Oeggerli, a postdoctoral fellow at University Hospital Basel. "That's important for fertilization."

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Bromeliad
Tillandsia maxima
The fold in a bromeliad grain allows it to shrink as it dries, or swell with moisture, without breaking.

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Water cabbage
Pistia stratiotes
The ridges on water cabbage grains are an unusual pollen surface feature, though the plant is common from Egypt to Argentina.

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Venus flytrap
Dionaea muscipula
Venus flytrap grains are more than 15 times bigger than forget-me-not ones: There's no consistent correlation between plant and pollen size.

Continued....

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Persian silk tree
Albizia julibrissin
Persian silk tree grains are also more than 15 times bigger than forget-me-not ones.

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Pine
The pollen of this family coats cars with yellow-green dust—though this particular grain landed on an unhatched insect egg. It floats through the air, sperm carried by two pale "balloons." Such wind-borne pollen causes misery for allergy sufferers in much of the world, where it falls heavily, as it has for millions of years.

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Silver leaf tree
Proteaceae
Silver leaf tree grains have a sticky coating that bonds them to animal carriers.

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Pollen comes in many forms and sizes. The diameter of a pumpkin pollen grain (at center) is as thick as a dollar bill. The tiny speck at its lower right is a grain of forget-me-not pollen.

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Willow
A grain of Salix caprea pollen has missed its mark. Wedged between flower petals, it will die. While some grains will be flung into the air as springtime breezes swirl the willow leaves, others will stick to the backs of bees and find their way

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Indian mallow
Abutilon pictum
Spines on Indian mallow pollen help it cling to bird feathers.

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Poison bulb
Crinum japonicum
Poison-bulb pollen is surrounded by long, showy petals that attract insect porters. Some variations seem easy to explain. Others remain puzzling, or have yet to be investigated at all.

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Forget-me-not
Myosotis sylvatica
Forget-me-not grains are among the tiniest known, each just five one-thousandths of a millimeter across.

Thank you, hope you enjoyed them, i know i did

HM

The Images are awesome.

S&F for this thread

Yeah pretty interesting.

Germs and viruses, hehe nasty little buggers can live through some pretty harsh environments.

Tiny and agile, not to mention annoying.

good find.

Wow beautiful.
And the geometrics -
Just beautiful.

those are nice.

however the only thing that got me about your OP is that you said he "painstakingly " colors them, when in reality digital color takes not time at all ( at most 1 hour for someone who knows what they are doing for a complex work)

but they are nice, havent seen these yet. Unique idea, however easy.

[edit on 4-2-2010 by phi1618]

Awesome pics!

I'm oddly aroused. SSHhhhhhhh
Love is everywhere.

Really interesting pics.
Great colours!
Nice work.

Makes me want to sneeze just looking at them. AHHCHOO
Really nice photography.

Nice things are not welcome here ! where is the allien? chupacabra?

Originally posted by Gloster
Nice things are not welcome here ! where is the allien? chupacabra?

Actually the Government has modified the pollen so that you will become allergic to it, and then they will dominate the world through injecting IFD chips into your allergy medication. Just kidding.

But seriously, nice pictures. Really shows the intricacy of nature.

Ick!

Nature is SO gross, even prettied up.

Gives one a great appreciation for exactly how small a molecule must be. Even an Atom. Then we go smaller than that to a proton, electron and isotope. Then a Quark. Crazy cool photos. love the color.

It is amazing to see the intricate details .... I wish I had one at home and investigate many things at that level.

If you look at the Persian silk tree photo, it shows an amazing 'weaving' of its support. I just can't see how the fiberious stalk can weave itself like that!

Thanks again for posting.

I can hear tanks and soilders marching in the background. Doesn't sound like love.

[edit on 4-2-2010 by SuperSlovak]

reply to post by SuperSlovak


That is why i posted these images
I was feeling fed up with all the war mongering and negativity going on at the moment

Peace,

HM

Originally posted by Hithe Merinos
lifeforms. Using a scanning electron microscope, he takes for example images of pollen and bacteria before painstakingly colouring them electronically.

Colors them?

Who does he think he is - Ted Turner?


Seriously, nicely done.

The tiniest things we can see with a microscope are breathtakingly beautiful.

The largest galaxies we can see with a telescope are breathtakingly beautiful.

Our every day perception of the universe is so incredibly narrow.

Originally posted by diatribe
Makes me want to sneeze just looking at them. AHHCHOO
Really nice photography.

I could not stop sneezing. Psychosomatic possibly?

What a great find. It's not often that we see something that really shows hard work and dedication.
If we all applied ourselves to good works, just as vigorously, the world would be free of troubles.
Starred and flagged. Thanks for sharing this with us.