Michael W. Davidson of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at The Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida has created the Molecular Expressions website which features photo galleries that explore the fascinating world of optical microscopy. "Going where no microscope has gone before" they have one of the Web's largest collections of color photographs taken through an optical microscope (commonly referred to as "photo-micro-graphs"). The Photo Gallery has images covering just about everything from beer and ice cream to integrated circuits and ceramic superconductors.

They have converted the majority of the photomicrographs in the collection into pict (*.pict) files for Macintosh. They are made by dropping the color and manipulating the images so that they will tile seamlessly to support nice backgrounds for your Macintosh computer.

"Biochemicals -- This collection contains desktop patterns made from images in our large library of biochemical photomicrographs. These include amino acids, cholesterol, DNA, endorphins, fatty acids, hormones, neurotransmitters, phytochemicals, prostaglandins, proteins, sugars, and vitamins.

Food and Beverages -- This unusual collection features our beers of the World, cocktails, and wine collection in addition to soft drinks, ice cream, and vegetables. We have thrown in the flavors and fragrances collections as well because they are often used in the foods that we eat.

Chip Shots -- Use desktop patterns made from photomicrographs of your favorite microprocessor to decorate your desktop! We have made a wide variety of images from our Chip Shots collection available as seamless desktop patterns for your enjoyment.

Hi-Tech Materials -- From the world of science and technology comes some marvelous new materials including the famous buckyballs, liquid crystals, thin films, superconductors, superlattices, and polymers. These are intended for students of the sciences, engineers, and others who are interested in new materials.

Silicon Zoo -- We have prepared desktop patterns from over 100 of the images appearing in the Silicon Zoo, including many of the cartoon characters, space and land vehicles, animals, scriptures, logos, and other odd-ball things that chip designers place on chip surfaces.

Theme Collections -- These are collections with a cause. They include collections dealing with photomicrographs of objects related to crime, education, archaeology, religion, and sports. As an example, the crime collection contains photomicrographs of gunpowder, a knife, C-4 explosive, and other items relating to criminal activities. The other collections are handled in a similar manner with photomicrographs representing important items for each collection.

Geology -- Moon rocks and meteorites are the favorite images used to make up the geology desktop patterns. Others include precious metals and gems and the birthstone collection. Using desktop patterns featured here, you can adorn your computer desktop with desktop patterns from such items as diamonds, gold, silver, and of course, the Moon rocks.

Pharmaceuticals -- Would you like to see what the drugs you are taking look like under a microscope? Then visit our Photo Gallery. If you want to decorate your computer desktop with such wonder drugs as AZT, aspirin, tamoxifen, or ibuprofen, then visit this collection of seamlessly tiled desktop patterns.

Pesticides -- This collection of organic toxins and neurotoxins was originally termed"Drugs for Bugs" and contains a large variety of photomicrographs of recrystallized pesticides. Included in this collection is desktop patterns made from insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides."

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/desktop patterns/macpaper/index.html

MACinations March 04