Microscopic Photo Magic

What a wondrous world there is at the Microscopic Level. These photos are stunning examples of the beauty in everything around, and in us.

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The Beauty Of Booze: Alcohol Molecules As Art - Gin

Magnified up to 1000 times under a high tech laboratory microscope, images of various alcohol, mixed drinks and plain beverages like Cola and iced tea are sold as customizable fine art and prints by American company BevShots. The images are made by first crystallizing the drink of choice on a lab slide. Using a standard light microscope with a camera attached, the light source is polarized and passed through the crystal. This creates the magnificent colors and patterns you see in the image.

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Beyond the Human Eye - Filamentous Algae Oedogonium & Spirogyra

Three weeks of warm weather had left my pond covered with large slimy masses of 'blanket weed' or 'pond scum', the filamentous green algae that tend to plague ponds that have too much nitrogen in the water. When I'd fished most of it out I took a look at a few filaments under the microscope and - like so many living organisms - it revealed structures of great beauty when it was magnified a few hundred times. Inside each cell in the filament the chloroplasts were arranged like strings of green pearls. Various filamentous algae have chloroplasts in different conformations and the most familiar is the spiral chloroplast in Spirogyra..... but this is a different genus.....

The series of fine rings that you can see around the bottom of the upper cell on the left here, just above its junction with the cell below it, identify this alga as a species of Oedogonium. A ring forms each time a cell of this genus divides, so this cell appears to have divided three times.

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Beautiful Bacteria

Even if you're one of those people who appreciate that bacteria, while sometimes deadly, still help us and the planet survive, you probably don't think of the microrganisms as being beautiful. But biological physicist Eshel Ben-Jacob might just change your mind: His amazing pictures of Paenibacillus dendritiformis and Paenibacillus vortex bacteria show the fascinating patterns made by the colonies of these bacteria.

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Dried film of amorphous silica and aqueous colloidal solution | 2005 Photomicrography Competition by Ron Sturm

Technique: Darkfield, 10x magnification

Won the "Image of Distinction" - 2005 Photomicrography Competition

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Alcoholic Cocktails Under the Microscope - Pina Colada

Although some people find themselves artistically inspired with some alcoholic boost, who could have thought that alcohol itself looks like a piece of art. The “Bevshots” photo series, done by scientist Michael Davidson, features various alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, photographed through a microscope’s lens. Although originally it was done in the early 1990’s, success and recognition came only after Lester Hutt joined the team.

Bevshot images are made by first crystallizing the drink of choice on a lab slide. Using a standard light microscope with a camera attached, the light source is polarized and passed through the crystal. This creates the magnificent colors we see in our favorite drinks featured on this site.

With an impressive professional background (Lester has worked on NASA’s Mars probes searching for evidence of past life on the red planet and also for the famous Apple, Inc. on releasing the iPod), Hutt has rapidly turned this into a successful business. Now BevShots has a wide merchandising list, so you can pimp yourself with a branded necktie or hang a beautiful kaleidoscopic print of your favorite drink on the wall.

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Alcoholic Drinks Under the Microscope - Vodka & Tonic

They look more like modern works of art than anything that has come out of a science laboratory:

But these striking and colorful images are actually samples of alcoholic drinks that have been magnified up to 1000 times under a powerful laboratory microscope. Capturing the molecules that make up our favorite drinks like vodka, rose wine and tequila, the pictures were taken in Florida State University’s chemistry department.

Produced by American firm Bevshots, they are on offer as art works for buyers who appreciate the hidden beauty of cocktails.

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Leg Of A Water Boatman  (Corixidae)

Honorable Mention 2016 Photomicrography Competition | By  Marek Miś | Polarized Light, Darkfield Magnification 25x |