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Water Farm [Download]
Title: Water Farm Depositor: Karen E Gutzman Creator: Yao, Yuehan Description: 2019 Honorable Mention, Northwestern Scientific Images Contest. Water vapor condenses into droplets when it encounters a cold surface. The surface was made to be a wavy pattern. Condensed droplets periodically change in size from the apex to the valley, just like strawberries growing on a freshly tilled farm. The first mature strawberry in the middle (dyed in red intentionally) suggests the harvesting season is coming. Keywords: Northwestern Scientific Images Contest Date Uploaded: 06/19/2020 -
Stained Glass Petri Dish [Download]
Title: Stained Glass Petri Dish Depositor: Karen E Gutzman Creator: Edelbrock, Alexandra Description: 2019 Honorable Mention, Northwestern Scientific Images Contest. When growing cells outside the body, it is important to give them a safe place to attach and lay down roots. Like how plants need fertile soil, cells need nutrients to survive for long periods of time in a petri dish. One way to address this problem is to coat the surface of the dish with a biomaterial before laying the cells down. Researchers took this image to study the stability of the coating after 60 days. They made a scratch mark on the surface to measure the thickness of the coating. The instrument then colors the image by height. The red areas are peaks, and the blue areas are valleys. The height variation in this image is due to salts that were present as the coating dried. This caused the final image to appear like stained glass. Keywords: Northwestern Scientific Images Contest, cells Date Uploaded: 06/19/2020 -
The Matrix [Download]
Title: The Matrix Depositor: Karen E Gutzman Creator: Ribet, Stephanie Megan Description: 2019 Fourth Place, Northwestern Scientific Images Contest. Meet the OHM Sponge. This Oleophilic (likes oil), Hydrophobic (hates water), Magnetic porous material can be used to separate oil and water. This material can absorb 30x its weight in oil, making it an ideal material for recovering oil from an oil spill. Thespongeis made of a synthetic carbon backbone with a thin coating of iron-oxide nanoparticles and a carbon-based composite. In this close-up of thesponge, we can see bright green spots, which indicate iron-oxide nanoparticles. Keywords: Northwestern Scientific Images Contest, OHM sponge, Oleophilic, Hydrophobic Date Uploaded: 06/19/2020 -
Making Waves [Download]
Title: Making Waves Depositor: Karen E Gutzman Creator: Nicolaou, Zachary G Description: 2019 First Place, Northwestern Scientific Images Contest. Real-world physical systems can often exhibit beautiful and intricate patterns, such as zebra stripes, sand dune ripples, or cloud formations. This image shows water in a petri dish that is placed on a vertically vibrating surface. When the vibrations are strong enough, patterns of waves form on the surface of the water. A square pattern of waves is visible in this image, which is surprising given the circular shape of the dish. We have only recently made progress predicting these patterns with the aid of modern computers and advanced mathematics. Application of this finding will help us understand and control natural and engineered systems. Keywords: Northwestern Scientific Images Contest, petri dish, water Date Uploaded: 06/19/2020 -
Solarium [Download]
Title: Solarium Depositor: Karen E Gutzman Creator: Paumier, Jean-Michel Description: 2019 Third Place, Northwestern Scientific Images Contest. In this picture you can appreciate a dorsal root ganglia (DRG) from mice spinal cord. Neurons responsible of the sensory modality are found in DRGs. Here, as sunlight, neuron axons (in yellow) expend from the ganglia supported by satellite glial cells (in cyan). DRG model is relevant to study neuropathic disorders. Keywords: Northwestern Scientific Images Contest, neuron axons, mice spinal cord, dorsal root ganglia (DRG) Date Uploaded: 06/19/2020 -
Strainbow [Download]
Title: Strainbow Depositor: Karen E Gutzman Creator: Leslie, Kelsey-Ann Natasha Description: 2019 Honorable Mention, Northwestern Scientific Images Contest. The vivid colors and patterns you see are a result of birefringence, which is an optical property of anisotropic materials. Ordinary objects, like this plastic dish and tube undergo stress during manufacturing as the plastic is molded into its desired form. When you observe these objects through crossed polarizers, you are able to see the stress in the object as birefringent signal zones. Birefringence can tell us important information about the mechanical properties of various materials, such as crystals and polymers. Keywords: Northwestern Scientific Images Contest, birefringence, optical property Date Uploaded: 06/19/2020 -
Collodial Craters [Download]
Title: Collodial Craters Depositor: Karen E Gutzman Creator: Liu, Yuchen Description: 2019 Honorable Mention, Northwestern Scientific Images Contest. My research involves analyzing thestresspatterns that form in a drying drop of small particles suspended within a medium, which is called a colloidal system. In our everyday lives, these systems include milk, blood, and paint. Using a microscope, a dried drop of 830nm silica spheres 1% of its total volume is captured. Like drops of smaller particle sizes, there is a ring of accumulated silica spheres that forms on the perimeter, which has been documented as the coffee ring effect. However, unlike the other drops, there are no cracks that pass through the center, as the larger particles instead clump around anything they may find, even themselves. Keywords: Northwestern Scientific Images Contest, colloidal system, coffee ring effect Date Uploaded: 06/19/2020 -
Simulating Fish Patterns [Download]
Title: Simulating Fish Patterns Depositor: Karen E Gutzman Creator: Volkening, Alexandria Description: 2019 Honorable Mention, Northwestern Scientific Images Contest. Every symbol on this picture represents a different pigment cell in a fish skin pattern. We created this pattern using computer simulations of a mathematical model. Zebrafish have stripes on their skin, but some fish that evolved from zebrafish have spots like these. Whether fish have spots or stripes, their patterns form because brightly-colored cells move around and organize themselves into a pattern. Think of these cells like birds interacting to form a flock in the sky they follow rules of behavior to make beautiful patterns. With mathematical modeling and simulations, we search for the rules of behavior that pigment cells follow to create zebrafish stripes. When we change these rules in our model, different patterns form, like the spots in the picture. This shows one way mathematics is used to study the evolution of skin pattern diversity in nature. Keywords: Northwestern Scientific Images Contest, pigment cell, zebrafish skin Date Uploaded: 06/19/2020 -
A Crystal of Bubbles [Download]
Title: A Crystal of Bubbles Depositor: Karen E Gutzman Creator: Shah, Phalguni Shishir Description: 2019 Second Place, Northwestern Scientific Images Contest. We have all made bubbles by blowing air on a bubble wand dipped in a soap solution. Here, we make many small bubbles of uniform size by slowly injecting air into soapy water. The bubbles then arrange themselves in a uniform pattern-this is exactly how atoms arrange to form crystals. In fact, such bubble rafts were first used in 1940 to understand how crystals form. In this image, we see a single layer of bubbles arranged in a hexagonal pattern. The peculiar patterns are locations with two layers of bubbles sitting atop each other. Atomic crystals also show such irregular patterns, known as crystal defects. Keywords: Northwestern Scientific Images Contest, crystals , crystal defects, bubble rafts, bubbles Date Uploaded: 06/19/2020 -
A "Hole" New Method for Sperm Storage [Download]
Title: A "Hole" New Method for Sperm Storage Depositor: Karen E Gutzman Creator: Roth, Eric Wayne Description: 2019 Fifth Place, Northwestern Scientific Images Contest. Cancer treatments, while life preserving, can threaten fertility. Fertility preservation can be challenging in males with conditions of extremely low germ cell numbers or in those who have undergone testicular or epididymal biopsy where there may be limited numbers of immature germ cells. A significant clinical hurdle is the storage and recovery of small numbers of sperm. We engineered an oocyte-derived biomaterial the zona pellucida (ZP) to function as a sperm safe for storing sperm. The ZP is a glycoprotein matrix that surrounds the mammalian oocyte. Using a piezo drill, we made a small hole in the ZP and mechanically separated it from the oocyte cytoplasm and then further removed cellular material using a decellularization process. This images shows two deceullarized sperm safes imaged by scanning electron microscopy. The holes in which sperm are deposited within the sperm safes are clearly visible. Keywords: Northwestern Scientific Images Contest, sperm storage Date Uploaded: 06/19/2020