The Latest Nano GigaPant

This ant is from Madagascar, and is named Eutetramorium mocquerysi. The species is notable for having wingless queens that are indistinguishable from workers.

This image is composed of 400 pictures magnified 400x using a scanning electron microscope. The ant was given to us to image by Brian Fisher an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences.

For some more information, along with optical microscopic images click here.


View the full image at GigaPan.org

More Ant Nano Gigapans!

More Ants are on their way! The Nano Gigapan project has received some ant samples from colonies at the California Academy of Sciences which are in the process of being imaged. Seeing as there are over 30,000 species of ants in the world, we could have a new ant image every day for the next 83 years (funding permitting, but looking at NASA's latest LCROSS mission it does seem like they want to minimize long term funding, apparently by crashing things into celestial bodies). Luckily the Cal Academy only gave us three ant samples to start out with, and luckily they're not unique and highly prized type specimens seeing as how I have large hands and ants are small and breakable.
Here is the first Nano Gigapan of these three samples, which were given to us by Brian Fisher, an entomologist at the Cal Academy. This image is composed of 208 pictures taken with a scanning electron microscope. The ant is magnified 500x.

View the full image at GigaPan.org
This ant is from the species Proceratium MG03 which is thought to be a specialized predator of spider eggs.

And here is another Nano GigaPan of a different ant specimen given to us, this is just a head shot. It is composed of 132 pictures magnified 500x. This ant is from the species Strumigenys vazimba. These ants use their large head muscles to snap their mandibles close at high speed.

View the full image at GigaPan.org

Snow Algae

The Nano GigaPan project is working with Thomas Beer and Nathan Bramall, two scientists at NASA Ames, to take images of algae samples. These scientists are studying different types and species of snow algae. Snow algae is interesting because of its ability to live in extreamly cold environments. We have done five Nano GigaPans for them and they can all be viewed here on the Gigapan website. Bellow is one Nano Gigapan we took of a green snow algae sample (there are both red and green types).


View the full image at GigaPan.org

Small Parasitic Wasp Nano GigaPan

We originally thought this insect was a very small fly, but luckily an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences pointed out that it was not a fly, but rather a small parasitic wasp. This Nano GigaPan is composed of 425 images of this wasp magnified 1000x using a scanning electron microscope. It was stitched together using the Gigapan stitcher, and uploaded to the website. This image is 250 megapixels. I think that this is the best image I've taken so far.


View the full image at GigaPan.org

Update on the Nano GigaPan Project

The Nano GigaPan project is continuing full steam ahead in its mission to change the way we see. We recently submitted a proposal for a NASA innovation grant, this money would help us develop the Nano GigaPan hardware to make it convenient for other institutions to capture these types of images (we will know if we received the grant June 30th). Sharing this technology is one of our main goals, regardless of whether or not we receive the grant. So far the project has focused on taking interesting, or scientifically useful images, but now we will move on to develop the Nano GigaPan to work on other imaging tools. We are already collaborating with scientists from NASA Ames, the Stanford Neurology department, and the California Academy of Sciences to meet our goal of allowing other institutions to utilize this technology.

Give Me Liberty!

This Nano GigaPan is composed of 70 pictures of the Heads side of a 1978 penny. I didn't even realize a penny had Liberty written on it until I decided to see what it looked like under a Scanning Electron Microscope. Enjoy!

View the full image at GigaPan.org

Small Parasitic Wasp

Tiny Fly
Originally uploaded by Nanogigapan

I am currently taking a large nano gigapan (if that's at all possible) of this small parasitic wasp . The gigapan is set up to be 450 images.

Moth Nano Gigapan

Here is a Nano Gigapan of a the head of a moth. It is composed of 195 pictures stitched together and is 130 megapixels. The moth is magnified 800x using a scanning electron microscope.


View the full image at GigaPan.org

Moth Foot x800

Moth Foot 800x
Originally uploaded by Nanogigapan

The feathery foot of a moth magnified 800x using the scanning electron microscope. Check out our Flickr photo stream to see it magnified even more!

Moth Eye 250x

Moth Eye 250x
Originally uploaded by Nanogigapan

This is a quick picture of the eye of the moth that I am now taking a 220 image NanoGigapan of.

Close up of the Beetle's foot

Beetle Foot
Originally uploaded by Nanogigapan

Here is a picture of the foot of the beetle from the NanoGigaPan bellow. It was taken using the SEM at 1200x magnification.

Beetle Underbelly

Check out this beetle, it's magnified 800x using the SEM. It stitched a little funny in places, but he looks pretty cool. I was aiming to image the whole beetle, but needed to cut it short to make way for a training session scheduled for the SEM I was using.



View the full image at GigaPan.org

New Scientist

We were recently blogged about on the New Scientist blog.
Check it out!

Gigapans and NanoGigaPans at Sebastopol IGNITE!

The Gigapan and NanoGigaPan projects will be at IGNITE Sebastopol on Wednesday, June 10 at the Hop Monk Tavern. Doors open at 6:00pm, MAKE contest is at 6:30pm and talks start at 7:15pm. Reserve your spot, it's filling up fast.

Rich will get 20 slides, which automatically advance after 15 seconds - so 5 minutes to push the message.

Here is a fun article about the event from our local alternative paper.

Sebastopol is a bit over an hour north of San Francisco. It will be fun. I imagine that it will be captured on video - more when we know more.

Ant x800

Here is a whole ant magnified 800x using the SEM, it doesn't look much like the ants from a bugs life...
This picture is composed of 136 images (the head of which was imaged before by Jay) taken using the nanogigapn unit. It is magnified 800x using a Scanning Electron Microscope. The Antennas were not part of the original gigapan, and were taken by hand, they are made of 16 pictures and were put together in photoshop and added to the ant which was stitched by the gigapan stitcher.



View the full image at GigaPan.org

Ant Foot 200x

Ant Foot 200x
Originally uploaded by Nanogigapan

Here is a series of pictures of an ants foot at different magnifications (200x, 1000x, 2000x, and 3000x). It is the same foot in each image.

Ant Foot 1000x

Ant Foot 1000x
Originally uploaded by Nanogigapan

Ant Foot 2000x

Ant Foot 2000x
Originally uploaded by Nanogigapan

Ant Foot 3000x

Ant Foot 3000x
Originally uploaded by Nanogigapan

Egg Shell

I had to search my lunch for ideas of things to image, so here is 15 pictures of a piece of an egg shell stitched together. It has been magnified 1000x using the SEM.



View the full image at GigaPan.org

Flower seed

Flower seed
Originally uploaded by Nanogigapan

fuzz around a flower seed along with part of the hairy seed magnified 120x taken with a Scanning electron microscope.

Dandelion seed

This Gigapan is of the 'fuzzy' end of a single Dandelion seed, magnified 1200x it does not look as fuzzy as it does with the naked eye. This is a 20 megapixel image composed of 25 images from the SEM.




View the full image at GigaPan.org

Spider Mite foot

This is a 10 megapixel image of the Red Spider Mite's foot. It is composed of 12 images, 2 columns, 6 rows. It is magnified 3000x using the Scanning Electron Microscope.




View the full image at GigaPan.org