My student Robin has been working (on and off) for more than a year to figure out the best way to make GigaPan-scale imagery using the new desktop scanning electron microscope that our academic division acquired. There are several technical challenges to be overcome, each different, and some with ‘solutions’ that cause other problems. Dealing with all that takes time and has caused a lot of frustration. (We have a similar issue with thin section scale imagery – but I’ll save that story for another time.) Anyhow: we finally have some results that are cool enough to share. Here are four images of tiny planktonic critters – some diatoms, a foram, a gastropod. They aren’t as super-high resolution as most of the other GigaPan images I post here, but they are very, very small – and thus represent new territory for our imaging initiative. Enjoy exploring.
