It's been almost 1,000 years since Arab scholar Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) began writing his Book of Optics, a groundbreaking treatise that led to the development of the microscope. Scientific American has a round-up of the winners of the 2009 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition, and I think al-Haytham would be astonished and proud.
See all the pictures at ScientificAmerican.com
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Another Monday, another recap of a new episode of the Cosmos reboot. This one was all about optics, and much of it was excellent.
That was my starting point, anyway. And I'll aim to get back to it soonish.
Back when the first episode of the Cosmos reboot aired, somebody put together a composite of the cartoon people who flashed on screen, and we played a guessing game on Twitter.