October 1999
Molecular Expressions
The Molecular Expressions web site provides access to a wealth of information about the world of optical microscopy. The site features Galleria, a collection of acclaimed photo galleries, including the Movie Gallery, the Silicon Zoo, and others; and Microscopy Primer which is composed of several sections including the Museum of Microscopy, Anatomy of the Microscope, Virtual Microscopy, and others. (Virtual Microscopy is a collection of Java tutorials designed to demonstrate the operation of real-life microscopes to students.) Also featured are a Microscopy FAQ and other resources, including a collection of links to over 100 other microscopy web sites and the complete bibliography of the reference material used in preparing the Microscopy Primer.
The Molecular Expressions Photo Gallery contains hundreds of examples of full color photomicrographs (photographs taken through a microscope) selected from many collections and covering everything from beer and ice cream to integrated circuits and ceramic superconductors. These photographs are available for licensing to commercial, private, and non-profit institutions, or for personal use on the Web. The Movie Gallery contains animated videos that explore the effect of rotating polarization, sample rotation, and crystallization as it actually appears under the microscope.
The Silicon Zoo is a collection of photomicrographs of "creatures" lurking within the dark corners, nooks and crannies of computers. Interesting silicon "creatures" and other doodling scribbled onto integrated circuits are found when computer chips are put under the microscope. Put there by engineers when they design computer chip masks, the photomicrographs of the chips reveal that engineers designing modern computer chips possess very rich senses of humor.
To view examples from any of the collections or to interact with the JAVA tutorials, visit the Molecular Expressions web site at <http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/ >.
Courtesy of Michael W. Davidson
Molecular Expressions
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
The Florida State University
Photograph copyright: Michael W. Davidson and the Florida State University. Used with permission.
About the image above:
Microphotograph of the steroid cholesterol from the Photo Gallery Cholesterol collection.
Photograph copyright: Michael W. Davidson and the Florida State University. Used with permission.
About the image above:
This photomicrograph, entitled "The Con Artist," is from the Molecular Expressions Silicon Zoo collection. Constructed of small squares, much like a bit map image, the design was created on a microprocessor chip by Bob Miller, Hewlett Packard VLSI design engineer.
