Micro-photos and Nudibranchs
May 14, 2008 // Science

I stumbled across some really rad nature stuff so I thought I’d lump them both into one post. The first thing I found is called Eye of Science, a photo pair made up of Oliver Meckes and Nicole Ottowa who take micro-photos of all sorts of crazy stuff. Like the two bottom images are crystals magnified at 620 and 650 times the original size. The colors and composition of these images are really amazing, like tiny sculptures that seem impossible to make.

The other cool thing I found my boyfriend sent me after he saw it on Boing Boing. It’s a gallery of National Geographic of images of nudibranchs, which are toxic sea slugs that are just as beautiful as they are deadly. There are 9 images total, but they look so amazing! They’re all brightly colored, a good sign that something is highly toxic or tastes horrible, but so amazing to look at. The one above is a Bornella anguilla, which “flees danger by folding in it’s appendages and swimming like an eel”, how crazy is that? I totally want one of these as a pet!

Bobby

  1. holy crap, those little slugs are amazing…

    Comment by Andrew — May 14, 2008 #

  2. there are more than nine images, see the arrow at the right hand side of the top row, more like 30. they are amazing, and we think some artists can use colour in an original way. my favourite is probably the “solar powered” nudibranch on the first page, with it’s algae. makes me shiver.

    Comment by James — May 14, 2008 #

  3. I’m almost done studying a Biology degree and I can tell you, nudibranchs are not necessarily poisonous… in fact every slug that doesn’t have a shell is a nudibranch, even the garden slugs.
    Anyways, the pics are great, have you seen these?
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/gallery/2008/mar/10/medicalresearch.photography?lightbox=1

    Comment by Ariel — May 14, 2008 #

  4. the last two photos reminded me of this sculpture for some reason.

    http://bp2.blogger.com/_eTeZBuz0R4w/SBVHGyrY7WI/AAAAAAAAACo/mR0YLppEx_A/s1600/coffee-face-kiss.jpg

    Comment by christopher bird — May 15, 2008 #