29 December 2010

Neuron

A colorized scanning EM of a nerve broken open to reveal the vesicles containing the neurotransmitters.

Image credit to NIH, via Curiosity/Discovery, via Sloth Unleashed.

6 comments:

  1. When I studied biology a few decades ago, my favorite part was the scanning electron microscopy pix in the textbooks. I don't know yet whether I prefer it with or without the colorization, but it's pretty wonderful either way.

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  2. The trigger to the spark of electricity that buzzes around one hundred billion interconnected jabbering neurons that somehow gives rise to consciousness itself. I find images like this every bit as intriguing as any Hubble deep space field images.

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  3. That's incredibly pretty! Credit and high resolution image here: http://images.nigms.nih.gov/index.cfm?event=viewDetail&imageID=1244

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  4. pom, your link is broken. I did find the image at this NIH link -

    http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/insidethecell/chapter3.html

    but I don't think the resolution is any better there.

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  5. As a former scanning electron microscopist I am impressed with the resolution...would like to know Kv and scale though.

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