Victorian Diatom Art
In the mid to late 19th century, people became increasingly fascinated with science. Rising literacy led to a demand for books, and an anonymous book titled Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation became the rage (http://goo.gl/fYMl0m). Darwin proposed his theory of natural selection. Microscopes became cheap and readily available. They were used not only for scientific discovery, but also as tools for popular entertainment. Microscope clubs popped up and amateurs made their own slides. Clever entrepreneurs took advantage of the public’s interest to make microscopic art by arranging hundreds or even thousands of tiny diatoms, butterfly scales or even beard hair (!) to generate these astonishing works of beauty. One such artist, Henry Dalton, used a boar hair and his own breath to move particles into position under a microscope. A newspaper article described him thus: “Although Dalton was dissipated, he excelled most of his imitators in this peculiar line of art” (http://goo.gl/tYPIUq).
Source: Exhibition Mounts by Watson & Sons, London circa 1885.
http://www.victorianmicroscopeslides.com/slideexb.htm
Reading: Antique microscopy slides reveal obsession with science http://goo.gl/c8a3d8
#ScienceEveryday when it’s not #ScienceSunday
madame scientist's not-so-mad musings 
Interesting and awesome posts as usual Rajini Rao … ^^
Have a nice weekend dear !!
I’m off to bed now … 🙂
Goodnight, Magnus Fahlén . Have some purr-fect dreams 🙂
Thanks a lot Rajini Rao … ^^
I’ll do my best … 😉
Love it !
Jose M. G. Guerreiro , imagine their patience! I’m glad they have survived for us to enjoy.
Amazing Rajini Rao
Nice post Rajini Rao
Nice weekend to you ! 🙂
Diatoms are important in geology. Often ancient environments can be interpreted on the numbers and particular species of diatoms present in the ancient environment. To geologists, there are two different types, those that have a silica test, and those that have a calcareous test which is the mineral calcite or calcium carbonate. The specific form of this is usually aragonite.
Common diatoms have many uses including filtration, process substrates and sometimes in health. Diatoms can filter out toxins and have been used as de-toxifying agents in the body. HPLC analysis should be used to determine if the DE (diatomaceous earth) contains any heavy metals already. It’s a very strong filter and pulls out everything. Therefor a program of putting the minerals back is important.
It was my pleasure to share this unusual find, Tom Lee and E. M. N. .
Jim Carver , diatoms are fascinating from so many points of view..their biology, ecological significance, use in dating layer of earth in paleontology, etc. Thanks for the summary.
Love it.
Letha McGarity , diatoms are endlessly interesting. They also act as photonic crystals, diffracting light because of their repeating patterns. They are added to cosmetics to make them iridescent. I posted some lovely scanning EM pix of them a while back: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RajiniRao/posts/ZyUsXsWFmgS
Rashid Moore I guess I’d better get to making some entertaining art in my lab to help the cause 🙂
Rashid Moore Well I think they were more interested in the wonders that were being laid before their eyes. Now, it’s about old hat and the sons and daughters of these wealthy noblemen…and they were men for the lion’s part, don’t really care about the exploration of science. Some do, but many pad their pockets on things they are just so highly temporary.
I just don’t know how they’re gonna git into heavan like that. 🙂
Wow, I love it!
Amazing!
Wow. I love that
( I see fancy needlework, of course) what neat pictures! thanks Rajini Rao !!
mary Zeman some of them look like buttons..”fancy work” as it is called in India. Or perhaps quilting.
Nice one,, thanks Rao!!!
wow! fantastic and totally fascinating !
Such an unusual and fascinating post! Thanks Rajini Rao :-).
They are so delicate, I’m glad they survived more than a hundred years, Mara Rose .
Rajini Rao I will be projecting these in our new planetarium at the Lower Eastside Girls Club. Gorgeous!
fabulous!
Beautiful and interesting – and I vote yes for lab art! 🙂
We have made some multilayered nanoparticles, some of them are looking like this.
I like all of your photos 🙂
reyaly like
Dave Pentecost I love the idea of projecting these on a planetarium, wow!
V R Swamy , how intriguing..what was the source of nanoparticles that you used? Would be interested in learning more 🙂
Fascinating! Thank you Rajini Rao 🙂
All beauty is destroyed by the unaestetics. Dalton can’t see some colors and most of people can’t see beauty.
Alfonso Ramirez unclear about your meaning?
Rajini Rao picture feel cool heart
They evoke fractals and deep space structures and rose windows in cathedrals. Wow. What a terrific set of pictures and story. Thanks!!
Your words bring up lovely, evocative images ..thanks Bill Collins !
Hi Rajini-been awhile..glad to see you’re as energetic as ever…
Hi daniel wyatt , good to see you back on G+. Hope your health has been well.
Nice to be back..I was bragging to a couple of scientists (chemical
engineers-young couple, one of whom describing her smoking habit,”I only
smoke when I drink”!)…I wondered how that negated the effects?!
I described the molecular rotary engine, the Costa Rican tree frog w/
artificially induced eyes that may have some reactivity, thus
possible access to the brain AND most importantly, your phenomenal skills
as a chef.
Anyway, not take much more of your time
– I had my 4th surgery last week.
– I’ve rejoined the the Planetary Society, and
receive regular, almost daily missives from
Emily Lakdawalla w/ effusive descriptions
of all things planetary, as well as editing the
sites blog-
Lastly, I’ve been very busy keeping a schizophrenic older brother off the
streets..
He was in a facility some 20+ yrs-that closed, and he’s been bounced from
one place to another, as the choices for housing those who suffer mental
illness have dwindled, basically due to cuts initiated by Ronald Reagan.
Lawrence, my brother was at one point on the mean streets of L Angeles for
5 days and nights, myself and LAPD searching gang enfested neighbourhoods
at all hours-he’s 67, totally defenceless, no money, food, clothing-all
because of lackluster monitoring at a hospital he was being evaluated by..
That’s ’bout it
Fun and frolic in sunny SoCal
Good to hear from you – I’ve a lot to catch up on..your entries make great
reading, of course, and I plan on doing so throughout the summer
Dan
daniel wyatt , Wow, you have your hands full. Good luck with your brother, he sure is lucky to have you watching out for him. I can only imagine how hard it is to care for him. Hope your health gets better and many thanks for the vote of confidence re. my posts. Take care!
Wow!..superb!,,, thank you so much for bringing all these out!
Brilliant!!!
A really interesting read. Thanks Rajini Rao
Beautiful, Amazing and Educational, as always . . .
Many thanks, Ali Adelstein . Hope that spring will spring soon in Munich 🙂
Lovely weather report, Ali Adelstein . Daffodils emerging here in eastern US 🙂
Rajini Rao nice
Rajini Rao, hope you’re preparing a new post for us, soon.
Yes, ma’am. I needed that reminder Susana M. 🙂
Nice!
Beautiful!
Rajini Rao Mostly, I have used lipid/protamine nano particle. While we add some surface modification for functionalization the nanoparticles looks very decorative!
Chitosan nano particles with mab against surface markers of leukemia are also looking like this.
However, when the nanoparticle interacts with water and other poly anionic surface, the structural stability is greatly affected so that with the overall surface group and their ability to interact with their targets
V R Swamy these are diatoms, not nanoparticles?
Rajini Rao I am aware with the fact that these are diatoms.
I mean to say that the new generation nanoparticles have such multilayer compartments. However, unlike diatoms, the multi layered NP structural integrity is affected by several cellular and physiological factors.
It is too difficult (or not possible) to design a structurally/functionally stable nanoparticle like these diatoms. Nature has always the best design secret 🙂
For example the Trans-Activator of Transcription protein in HIV that acts precisely in nanoscale during the infection.
Ah, okay, thanks for the context. You make a good point.
Amazing!
Hi Rajini,
i knew Diatoms were useful cleansers of water bodies, but i didnt know they were so beautiful! – http://www.caleidoscope.in/eco-ideaz/nualgi-a-saviour-for-sewage-water
Thanks for the link on how diatoms can be used to treat sewage, Levine Lawrence . It was a great read!
#LovingThis
Delighted to know that, Christina M !
Brilliant.
جميل جدا هذا الابداع
Great information 😚 thank you
Mind blowing
Kaleidoscope 😍 thank you for the info. First time that I hear about this intricate art form
#Kaleidoscopic patterns, it looks.
Nice patterns
Gorgeous
Mandalas of delight.. sincerely. ricky
I too paint mandalas it’s rewarding
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बहुत खूब।।।आर्ट हि कला का प्रतिबिब है
Enjoy
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SL4TO_c-pKNZqtsywoTDf_Pl0OrYeIx_q1awxplGpHm7KzkhurFsEqF-yR2GfwT9pcLVGE1QQ
Almost like my art that’s pretty awesome
Like my art it’s dots
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/H3_HnfFpmUVSFz99Xb0H8kxCt25yhlNklS4o0ijR0L_ilYRds2uM3EMuP8ag-ES3EGZMLtNXaQ
https://youtu.be/YF5wLpk0k3U
Your art is very pretty
How’s this https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/fjk0QcIN4TFoVfhu17cLnNiZOs4N3-TH7MV_3Cw_zbublQkLE-Uk_wpSgFf3xtzK8sHFmawyPA
http://viutube.lk/mobile-video-editing-සිංහලෙන්kinemaster-sinhala-review_v13619
viutube.lk – Mobile video editing සිංහලෙන්.Kinemaster sinhala review.
Thank you.😊
this is very beautiful
javad khorrami thank you here’s something else you might likehttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/2rNGm35YjVNmGyaPeK41ZT_frjoY_7hiAwjIpRfI8H7qvtrUWmlRsu7JjqH448kK8tsxOQ2sAA
Ncy
Or thishttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xR-0ZGbOqRnrDlVAsgTgmhgJRSk00czBFucLXK0–cMeuVEiHyUyXR7qNzYSvU7toiAoeXwJ3g
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/V04UWT6LQVcWt4ZBdLd64JzOXMTFcU_7B1KsgSq-a-ikk6zXwONFtpugE4HdmVMvZsjlLmpW4Q
Enjoy eh 😊
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Beautiful…. 🙂
I like your work I like stuff like that.
Not so alone now.
Have a good one friend. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Fjb84-u8dzvTiPT1gGefYp1gyV3jw0k4Gn62I9klfiS0kZlQ0mLNcsyXBpDRy8bx0VWNKDQ0lw
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nice
Rj Sagor thank you.😊 I have many in Brite eye catchy colors to give a lil 3D look sort off.
Acrylic paint on canvas
Enjoy.😊 https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/je5XzosJS3mnz3tJU_Kb5QD-mVctPZGtH2Uji-M8eHS2dlckcIteHMpESe5L_yISgAAYQV6ClQ