The anther of Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) at 20-times magnification.
Image by Dr. Heiti Paves, Tallinn University of Technology.
A 250-times magnified view of Aspergillus sp., a common mold.
Image by Dr. Juan Alberto Morales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma.
The ovary of an anglerfish visualized with an hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stain at four-times magnification.
Image by James Hayden, The Wistar Institute.
The larva of Owenia fusiformis, a tubeworm, at 100-times magnification.
Image by Wim van Egmond, Micropolitan Museum.
A 25-times magnified view of isolated wings from Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly.
Image by Albert Tousson, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
A germinating seed of Arabidopsis at 400-times magnification.
Image by Steven Ruzin and Paul Bethke, University of California - Berkeley.
Congratulations, orpheuslookedback, for being the first to correctly answer this week’s question! Make sure to check out their blog!
The fossilized shells of radiolarians at 160-times magnification.
Image by Wim van Egmond, Micropolitan Museum.
A leaf of Zea mays, more commonly known as corn, injected with Ustilago maydis, the fungus that causes corn smut.
Image by Dr. Kylie Boyce, University of Melbourne
THIS WEEK’S QUESTION!
Every Sunday, a question will be asked about one of the images from this past week. Be the first to answer correctly, and your blog will be promoted on this post and Biocanvas’s homepage! Winners are announced the following day.
What is one primary function of the hippocampus?
The eggs from a parasitic worm, Acanthocephalan sp., at 400-times magnification.
Image by Dr. Juan Alberto Morales.
A 400-times magnified view of a cut strand of Spinifex littoreus, a type of coastal grass.
Image by Daphne Zbaeren-Colbourn.
A neuron from the hippocampus at 63-times magnification. There are approximately 100 billion neurons in the human brain.
Image by Dr. Carlo Sala, CNR Institute of Neuroscience.
Seeing Blind
The human eye can distinguish about ten million colours thanks to the light-sensitive lining at the back of our eye. Containing millions of cells, called rods and cones, the retina (pictured flattened out from a mouse eye) absorbs light and transmits this visual information to the brain. Also within this specialised layer are thousands of melanopsin retinal ganglion cells (stained purple) that control our subconscious responses to light, such as the shrinking and expanding of our pupils. Scientists reveal that these cells also provide unexpected amounts of visual information to the brain during conscious vision. In mice completely lacking rods and cones, the contribution of these ganglion cells was enough to prompt responses to light. This discovery may help to solve the mystery of why some people who lose rods and cones as a result of eye disease can still consciously detect the presence of light even when blind.
Written by Lux Fatimathas
Photosensitive ganglion cells, also called photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (pRGC), intrinsically photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells (ipRGC) or melanopsin-containing ganglion cells, are a type of neuron (nerve cell) in the retina of the mammalian eye. They were discovered in 1923, forgotten, rediscovered in the early 1990s and are, unlike other retinal ganglion cells, intrinsically photosensitive. This means that they are a third class of retinal photoreceptors, excited by light even when all influences from classical photoreceptors (rods and cones) are blocked (either by applying pharmacological agents or by dissociating the ganglion cell from the retina). Photosensitive ganglion cells contain the photopigment melanopsin. The giant retinal ganglion cells of the primate retina are examples of photosensitive ganglion cells.
A 100-times magnified view of the glandular gastric mucosa of a mouse.
Image by Dr. Marian Miller, University of Cincinnati.
eucaryotic and procaryotic cells, biology today textbook, 1972
illustrations by diane macdermott
The flowering bud of Ranunculus acris, a meadow buttercup.
Image by Dr. Stephen S. Nagy.
