Day #294 Scanning Electron Microscopes

I found the most amazing group of websites the other day. I’ve been reading Beyond the Body Farm by Dr. Bill Bass, who founded that research facility, and Jon Jefferson, who takes all the stories Dr. Bass has about the Body Farm and turns them into books.

The theme of this particular book was the many ways in which technological inventions have changed the science of forensics in the years since the Body Farm was established. One of the goodies they talked about is the SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope). They can use it to find a minute fragment of metal, for instance, in a tiny cut on a bone to prove that the long-deceased owner of that bone was the victim of a homicide.

They also show a lot of COOL bugs!

You can Google scanning electron microscope SEM image gallery

Here’s a bee from a fully copyrighted website called MicroAngela (it took me a few minutes to figure out the pun): http://www5.pbrc.hawaii.edu/microangela/

I have written permission from Tina (Weatherby) Carvalho to use this incredible image.

Copyright © 1996-2000 Tina (Weatherby) Carvalho...MicroAngela

Note the hinged antennae. I talked about them last month (June 20^th) on Day # 240.

Just think, every single one of the 60,000 or so denizens of my back deck hives has this kind of artistry built in. And with a tongue like this, no wonder my fuzzy ladies can gather so much nectar.

Ain’t life grand?

BEEattitude for Day # 293:

       Blessed are those who like to SEE what they're looking at, for they shall be astounded by the wonder of it all, especially the wonder of us bees.

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