Dust

By Brad in SEM Images on Jun 28, 2017Views: 8

Dust is all over the place – in our houses, cars, and even in the air we breathe. Even the most hypochondriac among us can’t escape it for long. We’ve all seen objects covered in a layer of gray at some point or another, but what does it actually consist of? Today we find out!

Click for HD Version of the Header Image

Note: My wife has forbidden me from saying where this dust came from. I apologize if you’re curious, but I’m not allowed to say.

Dust

All in all, I’m quite pleased with how this turned out. Each sample was taken by pressing an adhesive against a dusty surface four times (I wanted to make sure there was some good density). There was some concern about whether the sample would behave (the lab manager gave me a weird look when I said that I was prepping a sample of ‘dust’), but once it was sputter-coated, the results were quite fascinating. While most of the sample was probably dead skin (not very exciting to look at), there were still some objects that I’ve yet to identify. If you know what they are, perhaps you could pop into a discussion on Reddit and share with everyone! I’ll post theories here as they develop.

First, the hair running through the center was flanked by small spheres – one of which almost looks like a cell in the process of splitting. There were also some smaller objects that appeared to be pollen. The objects are all different enough that I’m not confident making a call as to what they are, but the diversity in such a small sample is amazing.

Wide view of dust sample

Here’s a shot of one such object. For reference, this thing is still quite massive – measuring about the 2/3’s the width of a hair. Click here for an HD Image

Pollen? Microbe? Interesting either way

Hyper-Zoom

This hyper-zoom is a new record for MagnifEye – the largest megapixel image we’ve ever assembled! Explore to your heart’s content!

Dust Hyper-Zoom

Between you and I, I spent way too much time messing around on this dust sample. I was so fascinated with the results that it was hard to move on to the next set. If you’d like to see more, let us know on Reddit! If you enjoyed this massive hyper-zoom and want to see more like it, please consider supporting us on Patreon!