If you do nothing else today, click on this: David Breashears created this composite image in the spring of 2012 as part of Glacier Works’ effort to document the response of glaciers to a changing climate. Click on it to enter the rarefied air of the high Himalayas and to play a rousing game of [...]

I was entranced by this image when it appeared today in my facebook stream: Captured by the talented Malaysian photographer Liew Wk, the photo shows a developmental asymmetry in size between the anterior median eyes of this Asian jumping spider. I do not know what caused this imbalance. Perhaps each side is a molt out of sync, [...]

On popular request, I present my full kit of photographic gear. Lenses are the heart of any kit. My line-up includes (from left to right): Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS II. This fast, sharp telephoto zoom is the one lens I own that hasn’t yet paid for itself, partly because it is expensive, and partly [...]

A few months ago, an artist who traced my photograph in the L.A. Times prompted a heated discussion: was the artist’s work sufficiently transformative to count as Fair Use under U.S. copyright law? Some copying of protected works may be allowed if the character or purpose of the copy significantly transforms the work in a [...]

This blog often covers small things: insects, spiders, slime molds and so on. In the scheme of biology, though, the usual fare here is pretty big. In contrast, here is something truly small- the first high-contrast microscope image of an isolated molecule bundle of DNA: Researchers at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia strung a molecule [...]

I like to think I have an active imagination, but Dictyostelium discoideum is an organism so bizarre I could not have dreamed it up on my own. Dictyostelium is a slime mold. It spends much of its time as an apparently typical microscopic single-celled amoeba, oozing about in wet soil grazing on bacteria. Something truly odd happens, however, [...]

Scared of insects, spiders, or other leggy arthropods? It could be worse. You could be one of them. At that size you face an array of dangers unlike anything you know from your comfortably large human existence. Here are just a few of the many perils to worry about as an arthropod. 1. Your guts [...]

The taxonomist in me can’t help but notice that photographs of Hurricane Sandy, now bearing down on the Atlantic coast, fall into distinct categories. So I’ve made a helpful guide to 10 common storm images, complete with identification tips. 1. The Satellite Overview Diagnostic traits: white, swirly, often accompanied by a NOAA stamp. You wouldn’t [...]

I’d love to claim that images spring forth from my camera fully-formed & beautiful, surpassing any need for downstream correction. Alas, no. Even my best shots are improved with a little tweaking. In this post I explain how I crunch a raw capture to produce a field-guide type photograph. For brevity I will leave aside [...]

It’s a happy day for those of us who appreciate the small things! Nikon has announced the 2012 winners of its venerable Small World Photomicrography Competition. The prestigious contest, now in its 38th year, ranks images captured with various methods of microscopy. And I must say, the galleries are stunning! Go visit: Nikon Small World [...]