Skip to main content

‘People’s Choice’ highlights: Rock photomicrographs and the beauty of light science and technology



Bernardo Cesare’s photo (above) displays granulite rock under a microscope. The picture resembles a piece of stained glass window through sunlight, but it’s just a thin slice of rock 0.03 mm in thickness and 5 mm in size. The rock’s beautiful "interference colors" derive from the interaction of polarized light with the crystalline matter.

Cesare is one of 32 contestants for the People’s Choice Award competition in the SPIE International Year of Light Photo Contest. Judges have already chosen three winners, but now it's your turn to choose. SPIE is providing a prize of US $500 to the People's Choice winner. Online voting continues through 15 August.

This blog post features entries illustrating science and technology, including Cesare's, above, and four others, below. Future posts will showcase other entries -- follow the blog to catch them all.

Of his work, Cesare says on the National History Museum of London website,“My aim is to reveal the beauty of a world that is normally accessible only to geologists and through images to tell the fascinating story of our planet.”

Cesare is a professor of Petrology at the University of Padova. As a geologist, he uses photography in his scientific work. His project, micRockScopica, is a collection of photomicrographs and microphotographs which have been displayed in mineralogical and scientific photo galleries in Europe and the United States.

While studying minerals and rocks in Kerala, India, Cesare realized the potential beauty of this piece of granulite rock. After finding a thin transparent slice of the granulite he transmitted polarized light through the slice. The light rays displayed the natural interference colors shown in his photograph.

To brighten the original grey colors, he placed a red tint plate in front of the polarized light. The greys turned into blues and purples.

For more information about Cesare, see:


Other People’s Choice finalists who demonstrated light in science and technology in their photography are:

"The Constant," by Jasper da Seymour, Mystery Creek Cave, Tasmania, Australia, 15 July 2014. Inspired by the art of painting with light, Seymour uses fiber optic lighting in his photography. See Seymour's portfolio.

"Interference in Soapy Water Film," by Andrew Davidhazy, Rochester, New York, USA, 2011. Interference of light causes colors to appear in thin films which otherwise appear transparent and colorless. For more high-speed, schlieren photographs see Davidhazy's portfolio.

"Jewels on the Window," by Daniela Rapavá, residence, Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia, 12 January 2013. "The nature of light: what are photons?" For centuries we have used the word "interference" to describe the dark-bright bands recorded when we superpose two coherent light beams at a small angle on a detector.

"Phaser Laser," by Cory Stinson, San Diego State University, California, USA, August 2010. From healing the human eye to removing layers of pollution from century old marble statues, laser technology is helping researchers develop new ways to improve people's lives.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Ways to Celebrate the first International Day of Light

The first International Day of Light (IDL) is less than a month away. A global initiative highlighting the importance of light and light-based technologies, communities around the world are planning events celebrating IDL on 16 May. First Place Winner of the 2017 SPIE IDL Photo Contest SPIE will participate in outreach events local to our community in Bellingham, Washington, attend the inauguration in Paris, France, and host an IDL reception for our conference attendees at SPIE Optical Systems Design in Frankfurt, Germany taking place May 14-17. SPIE is also supporting local events in 13 different communities from the US to India, Canada to South Africa, who were awarded SPIE IDL Micro Grants to create activities that highlight the critical role light plays in our daily lives. Do you need some ideas on how to show your appreciation of light on the 16th? Here is our top ten list of ways you can celebrate IDL 2018: 1. Throw a Celebration:  Light up your party with light an

#FacesofPhotonics: NASA Intern Elaine Stewart

MIRROR, MIRROR: Elaine with the JWST at Goddard Space  Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland Meet Elaine Stewart: chemical engineering student, world-traveler, intern at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and this week's SPIE Face of Photonics. Elaine is fascinated by space exploration and how optics impacts our ability to "study distant stars that have never been seen before." Her research has taken her around the world -- from Bochum, Germany, where she studied material science and engineering at Ruhr-Universität, to Houston, Texas, to work on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) while it was under cryogenic vacuum chamber testing, to Melbourne, Australia, where she studied biochemical and product engineering at the University of Melbourne in 2017. And, when she's not busy traversing the globe, she is focusing on graduating from the University of Delaware in 2019 with a Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering. Elaine makes a point of remaining an active

Taking a Deep Dive into the World of Biophotonics

Gavrielle presents her research in Ven SPIE Student Member Gavrielle Untracht is pursuing her PhD at The University of Western Australia. She had the chance to participate in the 9th International Graduate Summer School in Biophotonics this past June on the island of Ven between Sweden and Denmark. At the school, sponsored by SPIE, invited experts from around the globe gave extended presentations on topics like tissue optics, strategies for cancer treatment using lasers, and entrepreneurship in photonics. Attendees also had the opportunity to present their current research projects, results, or ideas. Gavrielle shares her experiences of the summer school with this community in the following guest blog post. I recently returned from a week of great discussions and beautiful weather at the 9th Biophotonics Summer School on the Isle of Ven, Sweden. This experience, made possible (in part) by SPIE, was an invaluable opportunity for networking and a deep dive into the world of bi