Winners were announced yesterday. There's some awesome stuff.
http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/

Or you could use a light microscope that the competition is meant for :D

Technically you can't call an image from an electron microscope a photograph as you're no longer "painting with light (visible that is)".

Hey Niko... why not just get one?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110411932054&rvr_id=&crlp=1_263602_263622&UA=WXF%3F&GUID=8df8e8b71240a02681248af4ffc2e7cc&itemid=110411932054&ff4=263602_263622

I wonder if my school will let a random kid work the electron microscope... :D

That's if they even have one.

I know they have a particle accelerator, so they might.

jonnyapple said:
To give you a sense of the scale, you could fit about 10 million of these smiley faces inside the area of a normal period in a book. Perhaps a more relevant comparison is that you can fit about 1300 of them inside the area of one photosite on the D90.

I prefer to think of it as the size of that smiley being about 1/30th the wavelength of visible light (if I'm reading the axes correctly). This thing is so small that you literally can't resolve it with optical light, not even close.

That being said, this contest appears to be for light microscope pictures, not electron 'scopes.

NikoDoby said:
Yeah that contest always has some amazing images. Too bad I don't have access to a electron microscope to enter :^(

cmmon plenty of "simple" dark field or bright field method entries under the winners :)

jonnyapple said:
Okay, Niko. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Cool Jonny, will you participate?

NikoDoby said:
NERDS! NERDS! NERDS!

Okay, Niko. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

The microscope that I run has sub-nanometer resolution. One day I felt like I needed a little right-brain stimulation and 'painted' this image of a smiley face. Sorry about the bad image quality. I am ashamed.

To give you a sense of the scale, you could fit about 10 million of these smiley faces inside the area of a normal period in a book. Perhaps a more relevant comparison is that you can fit about 1300 of them inside the area of one photosite on the D90.

I guarantee you'd love electron microscopy. It's the ultimate in B&W macro photography. You have to make choices about working distance and aperture for depth-of-field changes. It's really a blast and the only problem with it is the price. I would love to own one, though.

NERDS! NERDS! NERDS!

I know how to run an electron microscope, and there's one right down the hall that I've played around on. Here are a couple things I've looked at.
This is a housefly's eye (click to see full size).

Here are some small(!) seashells called radiolarians.

I'll have to look around for one of my favorites. I doubt anyone else would think it looks as cool as these, but it's ductile iron and it's in color based on the elemental composition, which you can find out based on a simultaneous EDX measurement.

Yeah that contest always has some amazing images. Too bad I don't have access to a electron microscope to enter :^(

Small World is regarded as the leading forum for showcasing the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope. For over 30 years, Nikon has rewarded the world's best photomicrographers who make critically important scientific contributions to life sciences, bio-research and materials science.

Deadline for Entries:
April 30, 2010
http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/