Hello and welcome to my blog about my life (science) and whatever else takes my fancy (hint: it's more science). You may call me Redford and I'm 19 Earth years old, currently double majoring in physics and chemistry in New Zealand. In reality I have no idea what I'm doing or what I'm going to do though so you'll find a little bit of everything.
An image showing a mouse hair complete with nerves wrapped around the base. These nerves are responsible for being able to feel when the hair is moved and is responsible for the tickling sensation you get when you move your hand over your arm hair.
Image: Hagen Wende and Carmen Birdmeier
Ever wondered what flavors look like? Here you go!
Each one of these shows some chemical present in your every day food that contributes to the flavors you know and love seen through the microscope!
Top: capsaicin from chillis
Middle: glucose (sugar), catechin (present in teas) and honey
Bottom: some stuff from strawberries and lettuce!
Images
Gold Coated Ants and Microcogs
This is possibly one of the greatest “just because we can” things I have ever seen. For some inexplicable reason scientists decided to pose this ant with a miniature cogwheel. To get a good image of this using a scanning electron microscope the ant first had to be freeze dried and then covered in a thin layer of gold in order to stop a charge from building up as the specimen is bombarded with electrons. For science!
Partially dried red blood cells clotted on the cotton fibers of gauze.
(via ontologicalquandary)
