Consistence Company Video
Welcome to Consistence Microstructure Research Laboratory. The door is open to you, researchers in different fields where structure of materials, products, prototypes, biological samples, etcetera is of key interest.
Hollow wax fibres made by hydrangea scale insects.
Making hollow wax fibrils…….
To make these hollow, hexagonal fibres would be a good challenge for nano engineers, please react! Good for them to know that the cottony hydrangea scale insects (hortensia woldopluis in dutch) already have the method in perfection. These tough, hollow fibrils protect the young scale insects from being eaten by other bugs. Magnify your own product at Consistence.
Time lapse imaging of germination of garden cress seed (Lepidium sativum).
Seed germination
Yes, good to share that material research at Consistence is the seed to your business success, but this outburst of life, from dry seeds taken out of an aluminium sachet, makes me humbled after all...... Thanks Paul for imaging garden cress (Lepidium sativum) seed germination in our lab.
In 4 steps to 50k magnification
IKEA pencil
IKEA pencil magnified 50k times in four steps. High magnifications of materials and products seem disconnected from the real world. But here I would like to prove that only 4 steps are needed to magnify the graphene platelets in a pencil at a magnification of 50,000x (fifty thousand times) in just four steps, where each further zoomed image still can…
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) image of two mites.
Mitic Humans
Fashion, Passion, Sports, and Defence: it's all present in the microworld ...... or just a projection of human behaviour on tiny creatures ;) The imaged mites originate from hydrangea leaves. Their weight is less than a millionth of a gram. Lowest image is a surface detail. Method: cryo-SEM. Photographed by Frank Nijsse at Consistence.
Cryo-SEM image of Grapevine gall mite (Colomerus vitis).
Grapevine gall mite in situ
Owners of grapevines would recognise the protrusions on the imaged leaf as blisters created by the gall mite. The mites live underneath the leaves, where they have induced outgrowths of grape leave skin cells, creating a fine curly home for themselves ;). But who has ever seen the gall mite? Not so easy….. First, their size is about 0.1mm, which…
Open day
11th May Open Day at Consistence: great to see young people fascinated by science. Growing salt and sugar crystals here +imaging with polarised light.
Confocal Microscopy image of worn jeans textile.
Worn Jeans
CSLM autofluorescence image of magnified worn jeans This is a confocal microscopy 3D image of denim, as an example of the amazing effect of rather low magifications of daily stuff. The image shows woven threads that are composed of individual cotton fibres. The here imaged jeans have been worn as can be concluded from the many loose cotton fibres. The…
Phone screen magnification
This post is about the amazing beauty of the rainbow, white light, mobile phone screens, ... and 'regular' stereo light microscopy. To start with the last: a Stereo Microscope (or macroscope) is a sophisticated magnifiying glass. It allows to visualise details of objects that are below the visibility threshold of the naked eye. Now the phone screen: If viewed under the stereo microscope,…