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Christopher King is a histology technician at the National Institutes of Health, but he also uses his skills as a scientist to create art under the microscope. To produce this image, King spread roughly 25 mg of caffeine powder on a slide beneath a coverslip and then heated it just above its melting point, 235 °C. As it cooled, he pressed some areas to thin out the crystals that formed, trying to keep them less than 30 µm thick. When viewed under a polarized light microscope, the crystals exhibited a rainbow of colors corresponding to their thickness and orientation relative to the direction of the polarized light.
You can see more of King’s artwork on Twitter at @Masterpnside and purchase prints and products at linktr.ee/the_masterpiece_inside.
Credit: Christopher King
Do science. Take pictures. Win money. Enter our photo contest here.
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