Up close or far away? Scientists challenge you to work out whether you’re looking at microscopic or macroscopic photos of nature
- The images, ranging from a river delta to the eye of a zebra fish, show remarkable patterns on different scales
- They distort your perception of what you see and most people can only identify around 60 per cent correctly
- More than 50 of these images are currently on show as part of the 'Macro or Micro?' exhibition in Boston, U.S.
Have you ever noticed how clouds, when viewed from far away, can take on shapes of familiar faces?
Or how close-up microscopic images of an insect can look remarkably like space images of an alien planet?
The phenomenon is all down to how scale distorts our perception. Without knowing how close or far away something is, nature’s patterns can take on remarkable, and strikingly similar forms.
Two scientists have since created and collected more than 50 images for display in 'Macro or Micro' exhibition which aims to challenge our perceptions of the world. This image is an interferogram of the Vatnajokull Glacier in Iceland, showing topography, including a depression in the center of the image, caused by a sub-glacial volcanic eruption. It has a scale of approximately 5 km by 3 km
This is something that Stephen Young, a geography professor at Salem State University, noticed when he was studying vegetation on Earth using satellite imagery.
In 2004, professor Young had an exhibition at the Klein gallery in Philadelphia in which an image of the Mississippi delta was mistaken by many people as a medical scan.
‘At this point I started to wonder how people perceive satellite imagery,’ he told MailOnline.
Does this look more like a river or a medical scan? During an exhibition at the Klein gallery in Philadelphia this mirror image of the Mississippi delta was mistaken for a medical scan.'This is the image which began my thinking of how people perceive satellite imagery,' said Professor Young
Without knowing how close or far away something is, nature's patterns can take on remarkable, and strikingly similar forms. This image is of an emerging eye of a larval zebrafish. The width of the image is around 300 µm (the same size as a dust mite)
In 2012, Professor Young noticed some electron-microscopic imagery on the office walls of his colleague Paul Kelly. 'Some of his images looked like satellite images of the Earth,' he said. One such picture is this landsat image from west Africa
‘Then, in 2012, one day I noticed some electron-microscopic imagery on the office walls of my colleague Paul Kelly,' he said.
‘Some of his images looked like satellite images of the Earth.
'As a joke I put one of my satellite images on his door and he thought that it was an electron microscopic image created by his officemate.’
The scientists soon realised that there must be some recurring patterns in nature at different scales, and they started to work together to look the similarities between each other’s imagery.
This may look like a splattering of paint, but it is in fact Moscow by night at a scale of around 1400 km by 900 km. Data downloaded from NOAA Geophysical Data Center, and processed by Professor Young with the Idrisi Image processing software
The surface of the wing of a Blue Darner Dragonfly is shown at a width of around 3mm. This images was taken using colourised scanning electron microscopy
The work had a difference in scale of a million times or more, with Professor Kelly’s images showing objects millimetres and Professor Young’s revealing scales in kilometres or greater.
As reported by Megan Gambino in Smithsonian.com, the two scientists have since created and collected more than 50 images for display in ‘Macro or Micro?,’ an exhibition currently at both Salem State University’s Winfisky Gallery and Clark University’s Traina Center for the Visual and Performing Arts.
‘Most people had trouble determining the differences in scale and most people were only able to get about 60 per cent of the images correctly identified,’ Professor Young told MailOnline.
‘We also noticed during these focus groups that people enjoyed many of the images from an aesthetic perspective.’
This is an image of a variety of ice types off the coast of East Antarctica. The original images was taken by Nasa Earth Observatory. 'Most people had trouble determining the differences in scale and most people were only able to get about 60 per cent of the images correctly identified,' Professor Young told MailOnline
Professor Kelly's images show objects in millimetres and Professor Young's reveal scales in kilometres or greater. This image shows the surface of a green alga, Marchantia as shown at a width of around 1mm
This colourful image is a 30 arc-second Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for Antarctica. 'We also noticed during these focus groups that people enjoyed many of the images from an aesthetic perspective,' said Professor Young
Professor Young said that even biologists who do microscopic imaging and geographers that use satellite images have had trouble determining the scale of some of the images.
The exhibition aims to be both aestically pleasing as well as challenging how people view the world on different scales.
In addition to exploring perception, the researchers want to promote a public understanding of science and how scientists study the earth at different scales.
‘Along with galleries in the United States we hope to have international shows as well,’ said Professor Young.
‘I lived and worked in London for a year and hope to bring the exhibition to the UK in the future.’
At approximately 60 km by 40 km, this is a landsat image from central Mali. The raw data was taken from Global Land Cover Facility. The exhibition aims to be both aestically pleasing as well as challenging how people view the world on different scales
The flight feather of a common grackle is shown in this scanning electron microscope image at a scale of 1mm. In addition to exploring perception, the researchers want to promote a public understanding of science and how scientists study the earth at different scales
At first glance this might look like a cracked piece of wood. It is, in fact, a lens of a cow eye, which was freeze-fractured to reveal the internal structure
At a width of image approximately 1.5 mm, this image shows the crystal of sodium chloride, also known as table salt. Exhibitions featuring these images are currently taking place at the Winfisky Gallery at Salem State University and the Traina Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, Clark University
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