the art life

"Since 2006, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has been orbiting Mars, currently circling approximately 300 km (187 mi) above the Martian surface. On board the MRO is HiRISE, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, which has been photographing the planet for several years now at resolutions as fine as mere inches per pixel. Collected here is a group of images from HiRISE over the past few years, in either false color or grayscale, showing intricate details of landscapes both familiar and alien, from the surface of our neighboring planet, Mars. I invite you to take your time looking through these, imagining the settings - very cold, dry and distant, yet real...."



"Intersecting swirling trails left by the earlier passage of dust devils across sand dunes, as they lifted lighter reddish-pink dust and exposed the darker material below. Also visible are darker slope streaks along dune edges, formed by a process which is still under investigation. More, or see location on Google Mars. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona) Martian Landscapes: The Big Picture

Labels: photography, science

"Over the 100-year history of modern neuroscience, the way we think about the brain has evolved with the sophistication of the techniques available to study it. Improvements in microscope design and manufacture, together with the development of cell-staining techniques, afforded neuroscientists their first glimpse at the specialized cells that make up the nervous system. Microscopes with more magnifying power enabled them to probe nerve cells in greater detail, revealing distinct compartments. Newer techniques expose the connections between nerve cells, revealing the complex organization of the brain.

"Nineteenth-century histologists created some of the first images of nerve cells by chemically stiffening tissue and then immersing it in silver nitrate, randomly staining a small number of cells to make them visible when they were viewed with powerful new light microscopes. The technique revealed the silhouette of the cell body and its network of extensions, and it enabled the great neuroanatomist Santiago Ramón y Cajal to prove that the nervous system consists of cells. He produced the 1899 drawing at left: it shows finely branched Purkinje cells, large neurons in the cerebellum that play an important role in controlling movement..."

More => Time Travel Through the Brain, Technology Review

Labels: drawing, science

"With a normal photograph, you look at the scene you want to record, check your light meter (or more typically, let the camera do it), then press the shutter release. With these pictures, David Malin says, the process is back to front. You point the camera at something that can't be seen with the human eye. You press the shutter, allow for exposures of up to three hours, then see what emerges from the glass negatives.

"You're aware that what you are collecting on the glass plate has travelled halfway round the universe," he says.

"At the observatory near Coonabarabran, Malin could turn from the photographic plate and see the canopy of stars the telescope was about to reveal. "That's a lovely feeling. Nowadays, with digital technology, you can do the same thing in an office looking at a monitor. That's more efficient but not as romantic."

In black and white: the viewfinder's guide to the galaxy, Sydney Morning Herald

Labels: photography, science, space photography