This is what I did in school today (not 56k friendly in the least)

[Gobo]

Today was the last lab in my Forensic Microscopy class. Instead of doing something hardcore microscopy related, we took pictures of recrystallized solids under polarized light.

Wax

Ammonium Nitrate

my hair

Salicylic Acid

Caffeine

And yes, they are slightly shopped because some of them were a little dark or needed better contrast ;p

They are purposely shrunk, since the originals are 3872x2592

[DakAttack]

Re: This is what I did in school today (not 56k friendly in the least)

Can I has caffeine?

[Balfree]

Re: This is what I did in school today (not 56k friendly in the least)

Double rainbow hairs!

[TheGrandMom]

Re: This is what I did in school today (not 56k friendly in the least)

Really cool Gobo! Caffiene is indeed beautiful!

[Gobo]

Re: This is what I did in school today (not 56k friendly in the least)

The Caffeine image is serendipitous. Caffeine sublimates before it can melt, so I dissolved it in water, placed the cover slip on then boiled the water mostly away, so when it cooled it would fall out of solution and recrystallize. This is what I did for the salicylic acid, but only because that was boiling away way too easily when I was trying to melt it. Anyway, I thought I had removed enough water and cooled it down so I was walking back to my microscope. Well apparently, I was wrong. The solution was still well above 100 C and after a second, the solution bumped and splattered over the side of the slide. The caffeine recrystallized and I was able to get that image.

And while my hair isn't as colorful as that, it still is looks cool at 400x magnification. I wish I remembered to take a picture of that.