This photo won an honorable mention in the Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. They were robbed! Grand prize or they'll rip the judges' faces off!
Squidsuckers: The Little Monsters That Feed the Beast
Credit: Jessica D. Schiffman and Caroline L. Schauer, Drexel University
Crunch. The satisfying sound of a crushed cockroach comes from the destruction of its chitin-based exoskeleton. The white, fanglike circles in this electron micrograph of squid suckers are also chitin, but they are not so easily crushed. Their scant 400-micrometer diameter belies the true power of the suckers. A squid uses them to latch onto prey and force the unfortunate creature to its beak, where it is readily slurped down. "They're just tiny things, but they really keep the beast alive," says Jessica Schiffman, a doctoral student in material science engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She compiled the image while researching chitin properties in the lab of Caroline Schauer. The iconic film Little Shop of Horrors inspired the color scheme, she says.
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This is one of ten Best Science Images of 2008 as chosen by National Geographic:
Little Shop of Horrors fans may see a resemblance to the bloodthirsty plant from the 1986 movie in the above electron micrograph image.
Drexel University doctoral student Jessica Schiffman won an honorable mention in…
Squid Suckers
Jessica Schiffman and Caroline Schauer (Drexel University)Honorable Mention, Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge 2008
The September 26 issue of Science contains the annual S&E Visualization Challenge winners. The feature is pay-only, but the winners are summarized in…
Imagine that you hand is made of jelly and you have to carve a roast using a knife that has no handle. The bare metal blade would rip through your hypothetical hand as easily as it would through the meat. It's clearly no easy task and yet, squid have to cope with a very similar challenge every time…
Many naturalists become so familiar with the animals they study that they can recognise individuals within a population using just their shapes and patterns. If that's too difficult, animals can be ringed or tagged. These tricks give scientists the invaluable ability to track the fates of…
They look like they were knitted in green, white, and burgundy yarn, with papoer-mache teeth. Maybe Miss Skatje could help you with a model. heh.
Audrey III?
I still say Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
There's kind of a "when muppets turn on their masters" quality about them.
Cthulhu fhtagn!
Am I the only one thinking "Don't Panic!"?
Remind me never to get eaten by a squid.
Wow. Imagine having the inside of your arms lined with Langoliers!
"You cannot escape my embrace, my tender morsel. Never!"
What?! I thought that was a photo of the Molly winners.
*ducks*
Hehe. They're hilarious.
Nom nom nom nom
What?! I thought that was a photo of the Molly winners.
naw, like I said before, I have more rows of teeth than that.
My Little Cthulhu
Have you seen these? More cute little suckers!
http://spippo.deviantart.com/art/My-Little-Cthulhu-94509492
http://dreamlandtoyworks.com/my_little_cthulhu.html
Two comments saying they look like Cthulhu? Do you even know what Cthulhu's supposed to look like??? NOTHING like this.
Teach the controversy!!
F'tagn?
Choose wisely. Vote early, vote often. Iä! Iä! F'tagn!
#8
It's totally The Langoliers.
False-colored SE micrographs like this piss me off. Once you start making decisions about a "color scheme" it doesn't count as science any more, in my book.
Don't be such a curmudgeon, Sven.
If the color scheme was intended to help analyze or convey information, then it might be science. If it was intended to please the eye, then it is art.
This is art. Based on science. What's wrong with that?
Did anyone notice the "Visualizing The Bible" honorable mention in the Illustration category? What does that have to do with visualizing science?
Resembles a swarm of Isz from The Maxx.
Hey I saw that picture a few days ago and my first thought was to send you the link, but after never hearing back from you on the last pic I sent or seeing it here I figured you'd never see the email anyway. You need a super secret atheist email addy.
Look out--it's El Chupacalamares! Oh, wait: the squid is administering the sucking, in this case, and is not the victim of it.
That's just an awesome picture. Thanks!
I had to immediately check the comments to see how many other people thought of the Langoliers when they saw this.
Escuerd - I was thinking exactly the same thing. heh
That was...odd.
I have no problem with "art" of any kind. I just don't think it's the same thing as "visualizing science."
But I'll cop to the curmudgeon thing.