After adapting the Intel QX3 microscope for use with reflected light darkfield illumination, we have examined and captured a number of digital images for this gallery. Included in this gallery are thin sections of minerals from rocks, dinosaur bones, microscopic pond creatures, and recrystallized chemicals.

Bauxite - A bauxite rock specimen recovered from Joplin, Missouri, was found to contain aggregates of quartz, some calcite, and organic matter.

Cunningtonite Schist - This Precambrian schist was discovered in Rockford, South Dakota and thin sectioned to produce digital images with the QX3 microscope.

Cupric Acetate - A ubiquitous organometallic chemical that is useful for a number of industrial applications including pharmaceuticals and pigments.

Cretaceous Period Dinosaur Fossil - Under darkfield illumination, digital images of mineral growth in Haversian canals reveal spectacular crystalline formation.

Duck-Billed Dinosaur (Hadrosaurus) Bone - Digital images from a dinosaur fossil recovered in Canada reveal a complex network of minerals and fossilized bone material.

Glauconitic Sandstone - Thin sections of a sandstone rock recovered from Hazlet, New Jersey reveal microscopic particles of dark brown altered glauconite.

Limestone - These beautiful images of limestone thin section demonstrate the power of darkfield illumination with the QX3 microscope.

Menadione (vitamin K) - Birefringent crystallites often appear very beautiful under darkfield illumination, but show no signs of birefringence without polarized light.

Miscellaneous Dinosaur Fossils - A random selection of digital images made with several dinosaur fossil thin sections in our collection.

Mayfly Nymphs - Mayflies spend most of their larval stages in fresh water, where they breathe through gills and sparingly eat vegetation.

Magnetite - Thin sections of rocks containing minerals usually appear quite beautiful under darkfield illumination. The digital images illustrated here contain irregular clumps of magnetite grains in the rock structure.

Protozoans - Our search for microscopic pond creatures using darkfield illumination with the QX3 microscope has resulted in the discovery of a variety of unknown protozoans.

Stentors - Stentors are trumpet-like fresh water pond organisms that attach their pods to decaying vegetation and search for food.

Tallahassee Pond Scum, Part 1 - We have rescued a number of miniature aquatic creatures from ponds in the Tallahassee, Florida area. Several of these have been imaged in darkfield illumination with the QX3 microscope.

Tallahassee Pond Scum, Part 2 - Nematodes are very common in the stagnant warm pond waters around Tallahassee. We have digitally imaged several of these microscopic creatures.

BACK TO THE QX3 DIGITAL IMAGE GALLERY

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