Comments on: Nicotiana alata, up close and personal

Nicotiana alata, up close and personal

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:47:34 -0800

Three scanning electron microscope images of the plant Nicotiana alata.

By: tybeet

tybeet — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:50:36 -0800

For those interested: "Nicotiana alata is a species of tobacco. It is commonly called Winged Tobacco, Jasmine Tobacco, tanbaku and sometimes Persian Tobacco."

By: Lipstick Thespian

Lipstick Thespian — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:01:56 -0800

The vascular bundles contain the phloem (nearest the cortex) and xylem.

By: zerobyproxy

zerobyproxy — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:05:07 -0800

I like phloem by can't stand that stain-causing xlyem!

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:05:34 -0800

Well, yes, another bunch of grey photos of plants, I don't see why this is a big OH MY GOD IT'S GOING TO EAT ME Why does organic matter get really creepy and disturbing-looking when it's got a whole lot of holes in it? Because those photos freak me out.

By: wastelands

wastelands — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:07:11 -0800

[SLEM]

By: phyle

phyle — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:07:46 -0800

You go up a directory and theres heaps more- http://remf.dartmouth.edu/images/

By: scose

scose — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:08:28 -0800

lots more cool stuff at the parent directory.

By: jquinby

jquinby — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:09:17 -0800

I was looking at these and thinking uh, so what? until I actually clicked one of the pictures and it got gigantic..now the Elder Ones see into me from within their non-Euclidean abyss.

By: orme

orme — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:10:46 -0800

All those holes are gettin' me hot.

By: phyle

phyle — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:16:12 -0800

scose- great minds

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:18:23 -0800

Why does organic matter get really creepy and disturbing-looking when it's got a whole lot of holes in it? Because those photos freak me out. Yeah, I know. SEM imagery goes on that list of things that, while I appreciate them in principle and can handle them in small, bewondered doses, nonetheless just give me the fucking heebie jeebies. Something organic going on there at a scale that my mind just wants to reject utterly.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:18:35 -0800

Flickr pool. Ick!

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:20:36 -0800

So, I could smoke it?

By: fleetmouse

fleetmouse — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:24:39 -0800

The only plant that is as terrifying on the macro scale is the dreaded lotus seed pod or lotus jimwoodringus.

By: Science!

Science! — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:30:31 -0800

fleetmouse: "The only plant that is as terrifying on the macro scale is the dreaded lotus seed pod or lotus jimwoodringus." Oh, yes. Very much so. Have you seen these things recolored and photoshopped onto a person's flesh? Really, really nasty. The only thing worse is when someone animates worms peeking in and out of them.

By: kid ichorous

kid ichorous — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:30:35 -0800

lotus jimwoodringus Ugh. Everything in Frank has creepy and unnecessary symmetry, ink blots running riot.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:30:57 -0800

fleetmouse, those things totally invaded the earth in the '50s, didn't they?

By: scose

scose — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:36:01 -0800

yes, Science!, this page (NSFW) makes me shudder...

By: Liquidwolf

Liquidwolf — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:38:16 -0800

"Why does organic matter get really creepy and disturbing-looking when it's got a whole lot of holes in it? Because those photos freak me out." I think there's something biologically repellent about holes in organic material , because the repulsion is so primal. Like those frogs who hatch babies out of their back through the openings--- UUGHHH!!!!! Maybe it reminds us of maggot infested food that we know we should avoid.

By: Liquidwolf

Liquidwolf — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:40:12 -0800

"yes, Science!, this page (NSFW) makes me shudder..." I'm traumatized, I mean seriously fucking shook. You should have given a better warning.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:44:50 -0800

"yes, Science!, this page (NSFW) makes me shudder..." I'm traumatized, I mean seriously fucking shook. You should have given a better warning. posted by Liquidwolf at 10:40 AM on January 29 It's okay. It's fake.

By: Liquidwolf

Liquidwolf — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:45:54 -0800

"It's okay. It's fake." That's what I was hoping , looked a little too clean to be real, but I didn't want to investigate.

By: Slap*Happy

Slap*Happy — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:48:09 -0800

<>This was worth going up a level and poking around the folders for. I want a poster of that image.

By: Slap*Happy

Slap*Happy — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:51:02 -0800

Err... this.

By: newmoistness

newmoistness — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:51:55 -0800

My God, it's full of tars!

By: Slap*Happy

Slap*Happy — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:53:51 -0800

And this, too... man, these are cool!

By: fleetmouse

fleetmouse — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:03:27 -0800

Everything in Frank has creepy and unnecessary symmetry, ink blots running riot. Yes, all those uncanny living mandalas. I wonder what Lovecraft would have made of Jim's art. The way he overlays it with a coat of hi-gloss Disney just makes it worse, like a fever dream.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:03:33 -0800

What the hell is wrong with you people? I didn't find these "creepy" or even particularly interesting. I zoomed in and thought it looked vaguely space-alien like, but it barely even registered until I read the comments here. WTF?

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:06:19 -0800

SPOILERS It's because you're a cylon, delmoi. I didn't want to be the one to have to tell you, but there it is.

By: sundri

sundri — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:19:54 -0800

I find none of this creepy just endlessly fascinating. Am I broken?

By: CynicalKnight

CynicalKnight — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:21:02 -0800

What the hell is wrong with you people? I tried, but failed, to find on Youtube that scene from Fire in the Sky where Travis flys weightlessly but out of control across a huge hive chamber and plunges headfirst into a membrane covered cell filled with decaying human gristle. That kind of creepy.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:25:39 -0800

Like those frogs who hatch babies out of their back through the openings What.

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:30:14 -0800

These are lovely, especially the pollen grains.

By: katillathehun

katillathehun — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:31:52 -0800

The first time I saw that lotus seed pod/breast larvae Photoshopping job, I very nearly lost my lunch, and my phobia about holes-in-fleshy-things that started back when I saw a movie where killer ants crawled out of a hole in a dead guy's hand was made all the worse. Maybe when you get right down to it... what I'm really afraid of is bad effects.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:33:46 -0800

yes, Science!, this page (NSFW) makes me shudder... That forum is "undergoing maintenance." Any help on what this abomination was?

By: TheOnlyCoolTim

TheOnlyCoolTim — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:40:04 -0800

I think there's something biologically repellent about holes in organic material , because the repulsion is so primal. Like those frogs who hatch babies out of their back through the openings--- UUGHHH!!!!! Maybe it reminds us of maggot infested food that we know we should avoid. If you have a misguided "biological" (or not) repulsion to something harmless and inoffensive you should get to work on ridding yourself of it. Now a repulsion to SMOKING this plant, that's one to keep around.

By: needs more cowbell

needs more cowbell — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:47:50 -0800

Any help on what this abomination was? I assume it was the image here.

By: Liquidwolf

Liquidwolf — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:51:00 -0800

"If you have a misguided "biological" (or not) repulsion to something harmless and inoffensive you should get to work on ridding yourself of it." Yeah I'll work on that, thanks. But I like i said I think it's part of the human animal wiring since I've heard so any others say the same thing... so it might take me a few hours.

By: Bokononist

Bokononist — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:05:42 -0800

"Why does organic matter get really creepy and disturbing-looking when it's got a whole lot of holes in it? Because those photos freak me out." I think there's something biologically repellent about holes in organic material , because the repulsion is so primal. Like those frogs who hatch babies out of their back through the openings--- UUGHHH!!!!! The last I counted, I had (at least) nine holes in me. I am still in denial about my biological repellance, but that doesn't mean it's not true. *The last time I counted was not very recent.

By: sevenyearlurk

sevenyearlurk — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:20:34 -0800

Scanning electron micrograph of a mealworm, by me, circa 1996.

By: littlerobothead

littlerobothead — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:08:44 -0800

I gotta admit this type of stuff really freaks me out. I thought I was all alone, (well, except for my brother.) I wish I knew why it's so freaky.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:41:36 -0800

I wish I knew why it's so freaky. Because we don't have frame of reference for macro small things. We see pictures of this stuff and conceptionally we understand it's very small. But looking at the pictures, we project our own frame of reference size wise and who wants something like this in literally sitting next to you? Combine that with our own frame of reference that says openings on biological things are mouths and you got scary images. I actually liked the three original images linked and though they were beautiplex and make me stop and wonder at the marvelous inner workings of life in all its varied forms. YMMV.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:13:42 -0800

wow. Once I clicked on the image to make it bigger, that was incredible!

By: kid ichorous

kid ichorous — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:01:09 -0800

Yes, all those uncanny living mandalas. I wonder what Lovecraft would have made of Jim's art. Only in Steven Segal movies are so many household things enlisted into violence. For me the very worst one was called "The Fish," where Woodring takes that innocuous "mime mustache" image and turns it into a creepy facehug.

By: littlerobothead

littlerobothead — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:52:51 -0800

@katillathehun: This is the very same reason my brother and I are still squicked out by this stuff; we saw "Them" at a very early age, replete with its scene of ant holes in a corpse's hand. Not. Cool.

By: katillathehun

katillathehun — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:58:33 -0800

This is the very same reason my brother and I are still squicked out by this stuff; we saw "Them" at a very early age, replete with its scene of ant holes in a corpse's hand. Not. Cool. YES. That's the one. I'd forgotten the name of it. Damn traumatizing it was, too.

By: sexyrobot

sexyrobot — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:48:13 -0800

cool...except its not really organic matter yr looking at in these pics...it's GOLD!