Dark field microscopy is one of my favorite imaging techniques (as a viewer). A single tiny barnacle larva, pollen grain, or diatom is there in stark neon detail, seemingly embedded into an infinite corner of deep space.
Recent images captured of the first “glowing” sea turtle during a night dive in the Solomon Islands reminded me of this technique. When I briefly saw those images scroll up my Facebook feed, for a moment I assumed I was looking at one of these intricate bits of dark field flotsam instead of a large, complex reptile in flight.
Biolumenecence is what the technique invokes, even for creatures not so lucky to glow on their own. The process merges conventional light microscopy with the same low-light photographic principals one might employ for night sky images, a few of my favorite things. Apparently you can get pretty nice results even using a student or even toy microscope.
I feel an experiment coming…
Here’s a shout out to all the smiley North Atlantic Right Whales slurping back copepods today on #georgiacoast, currently refraining from vocalizing their kooky whale songs so those great white sharks don’t chomp up their baby calves.
1. Duct tape comes in cammo print. So do child car seats and evening purses.
2. Hand written notes, delivered by hand, are golden
3. Some meals are dumped out on the table, ie. lowcountry boil and oyster roast
4. Dolphins have military applications
5. Turtles and causeways do not mix
6. Group name for pelicans: squadron
7. If you think its too hot out, you are moving too much
8. The gnats never really go away, really
9. The Smell of Money will get into your clothes, hair, house and car
10. You can just ask for “half sweet” tea
11. “Bless her/his/your heart” is shade
12. You can either have less mosquitos or more lightning bugs, but you can’t have both
13. Everybody knows somebody who has been to Italy, mostly during Navy service
14. Even Captain Stan lived in Milan for awhile
15. Cake raffles and other dessert sports
16. Tidewater is an accent, Geechee is one of the few full American dialects
17. Sidewalks sometimes just end, ok?
18. Sand dunes, meadow and maritime forest (not beach house) is that stuff behind the beach
19. Spanish moss on the tree is full of bugs, spanish moss on the ground is probably ok
20. Any restaurant drink can be served to-go, even your tap water, and you will be peer pressured to do so, but its for your own good?
21. #blufflife
