Weekly Photo Contest: January 15 - January 22, 2020 | Science!

[Janichsan]

The topic for this week is science.

What I would like to see are pictures of anything related to science: people doing science, scientific experiments, scientific apparatuses, scientific samples and specimen, scientific phenomena... you get the idea.

As far as I can see, this hasn't been a topic of a WPC yet, but as a scientist myself, I'm really excited to see what you folks come up with.

Rules as follows:

· Do not comment, vote, react, or click “like” on images prior to the winners being announced.

· The photographs must be your own work.

· You may only submit one photo per contest.

· This contest runs for one week, if in doubt, check the dates in the title.

· At the end of the week, The Judge will choose a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place photo, providing as much feedback as possible.

· If the Judge is unable to complete the selection within 48 hours of the deadline, then last week's 2nd place has to step in. 3rd place takes over should 2nd place be similarly unable to officiate.

· The 1st place Winner will start a new thread with the topic/theme of their choice, and act as the Judge for that contest. (Winner has 48 hours to create a new theme, after that it defers to 2nd place).

· Be sure to update the Contest Master List as soon as you post a new theme.

 

[kenoh]

We took our eldest and her pals to a Harry Potter-esque potions class for her birthday. As expected carnage was inevitable.

 

[akash.nu]

When manufacturing a simple clock used to be equivalent to rocket science.

 

[Susurs]

 

[deep diver]

metallurgy - native cooper

 

[oblomow]

Science?! So I can finally post a selfie.
Science museum Oslo.

 

[imac wannabe]

So my sons and I decided to try and capture a bullet. I put together a flash trigger and set up in the garage in front of my motorcycle (faint in the background). We had lots of fun and took probably 30-40 photos and only were able to capture the balloon and the bullet in one photo. The pellet is grey far left near the center. At full resolution you can see the grooves cut into it by the rifling of the barrel of the gun.

 

[Laird Knox]

Wow, all sorts of issues posting today. Will have to try again later.

 

[mackmgg]

Cold weather brings clear skies for astronomy! Even with the light pollution of the town, the Orion Nebula was pretty clear last night.

 

[Janichsan]

One more day to go!

 

[someoldguy]

Just to add some bulk to the contest .....

 

[anotherscotsman]

OK, as a scientist myself I ought to make an entry. Thin-film optical interference phenomena:


Bubble planet 4 by another scotsman, on Flickr

 

[mollyc]

Well here's one for the numbers. Surface tension.

 

[Janichsan]

Okay, I declare the competition for closed. I'll try to be back with the judgment tomorrow – that won't be easy.

 

[Janichsan]

Okay, let's see… here are the peer reviews for your submissions:

@kenoh Experiments for children are always fun and a great opportunity to get them interested in science. As chemist, I'm somewhat appalled by the safety goggles being pushed up… The picture has some pleasing contrasts between the dark and the bright parts, which lend it some almost renaissance impression. As I'm spying some food colouring for the "potions" on the table, I'm wondering how a colour version of the picture would look like.

@akash.nu These old brass scientific instruments always have a very pleasing aesthetics in my opinion. I like that the background has a very similar tinge as the instrument itself, giving it a nice tone in tone appearance. (I think the columns in the background are somewhat leaning to the left, aren't they?)

@Susurs Maybe more engineering than science, but what is engineering else than applied science? The depth of field is nicely focused on the valves, which are additionally emphasised by the red colour of the cross section.

@deep diver These native lumps of metal always have fascinating and bizarre shapes, which make for interesting motifs. The Natural History Museum in Berlin has a similar lump of copper. The thin depth of field nicely emphasises the detail on the metal's surface.

@oblomow Unless you are much shorter and younger than I thought, you cut off your head in your selfie. I always found cameras sensitive to other wavelengths (IR, UV) fascinating, as they show a different, yet strangely familiar view of the world.

@imac wannabe Ah, nice. Not just a picture of an experiment, but the picture is the experiment. The photo took me a moment to parse at first glace, but then it reveals a couple of interesting detail which you just wouldn't see without the aid of such high-speed images.

@mackmgg Whoa. The slight blurriness makes me guess that you aren't (yet) an astrophotographer with years of experience and high-class equipment worth thousands of dollars, but that actually makes this picture just more impressive. The colours and the visible detail are stunning. I would be interested to read some details how you took this picture (exposure time, ISO value, focal length, etc.). Based on the stars being short streaks, I assume you didn't use a star tracker?

@someoldguy Marvellous detail. The curled up legs remind me somewhat of an Egyptian mummy. But what happened to its wings?

@anotherscotsman Well, what can I say: simply stunning. The bubble looks like a strange alien world.

@mollyc Not just surface tension, but also refraction and botany. Certainly quite a bunch of science for one picture. Amazing detail, and the colour and the bright sun remind me that spring's hopefully not too far away.

And now… the verdict.

This actually was far from easy. For a while, I thought there was a clear winner, but the longer I pondered it, the more I realised that one picture struck an unexpected note in me. While not the best one from a purely technical point of view, it shows that in science sometimes some boldness, inventiveness, and simply the will to try new something can lead to surprising, if not necessarily already perfect results.

To cut a long story short: the winner is @mackmgg.

Second place goes to @anotherscotsman, third to @mollyc.

Over to you, mackmgg.

 

[kenoh]

Okay, let's see… here are the peer reviews for your submissions:

@kenoh Experiments for children are always fun and a great opportunity to get them interested in science. As chemist, I'm somewhat appalled by the safety goggles being pushed up… The picture has some pleasing contrasts between the dark and the bright parts, which lend it some almost renaissance impression. As I'm spying some food colouring for the "potions" on the table, I'm wondering how a colour version of the picture would look like.

@akash.nu These old brass scientific instruments always have a very pleasing aesthetics in my opinion. I like that the background has a very similar tinge as the instrument itself, giving it a nice tone in tone appearance. (I think the columns in the background are somewhat leaning to the left, aren't they?)

@Susurs Maybe more engineering than science, but what is engineering else than applied science? The depth of field is nicely focused on the valves, which are additionally emphasised by the red colour of the cross section.

@deep diver These native lumps of metal always have fascinating and bizarre shapes, which make for interesting motifs. The Natural History Museum in Berlin has a similar lump of copper. The thin depth of field nicely emphasises the detail on the metal's surface.

@oblomow Unless you are much shorter and younger than I thought, you cut off your head in your selfie. I always found cameras sensitive to other wavelenghts (IR, UV) fascinating, as they show a different, yet strangely familiar view of the world.

@imac wannabe Ah, nice. Not just a picture of an experiment, but the picture is the experiment. The photo took me a moment to parse at first glace, but then it reveals a couple of interesting detail which you just wouldn't see without the aid of such high-speed images.

@mackmgg Whoa. The slight blurriness makes me guess that you aren't (yet) an astrophotographer with years of experience and high-class equipment worth thousands of dollars, but that actually makes this picture just more impressive. The colours and the visible detail are stunning. I would be interested to read some details how you took this picture (exposure time, ISO value, focal length, etc.). Based on the stars being short streaks, I assume you didn't use a star tracker?

@someoldguy Marvellous detail. The curled up legs remind me somewhat of an Egyptian mummy. But what happened to its wings?

@anotherscotsman Well, what can I say: simply stunning. The bubble looks like a strange alien world.

@mollyc Not just surface tension, but also refraction and botany. Certainly quite a bunch of science for one picture. Amazing detail, and the colour and the bright sun remind me that spring's hopefully not too far away.

And now… the verdict.

This actually was far from easy. For a while, I thought there was a clear winner, but the longer I pondered it, the more I realised that one picture struck an unexpected note in me. While not the best one from a purely technical point of view, it shows that in science sometimes some boldness, inventiveness, and simply the will to try new something can lead to surprising, if not necessarily already perfect results.

To cut a long story short: the winner is @mackmgg.

Second place goes to @anotherscotsman, third to @mollyc.

Over to you, mackmgg.

Great judging.

If I posted a colour shot, your eyes would be burning. There were 8 of them in there and it was chaotic! The shade is being used carefully as to not show the girls too much as i didnt have permission to post it.

 

[Janichsan]

The shade is being used carefully as to not show the girls too much as i didnt have permission to post it.

Fair concern.

 

[someoldguy]

@someoldguy Marvellous detail. The curled up legs remind me somewhat of an Egyptian mummy. But what happened to its wings?

It's an apterous variety of fruit fly . Bred to be wingless . Feed them to my fish .

 

[kenoh]

It's an apterous variety of fruit fly . Bred to be wingless . Feed them to my fish .

So, if they have no wings, they can't fly.. so are they called a walk?

 

[deep diver]

So, if they have no wings, they can't fly.. so are they called a walk?

It sounds like they're called dinner.

 

[someoldguy]

So, if they have no wings, they can't fly.. so are they called a walk?

Well sometimes they run , some might meander , others scoot , there could also be ones that stroll , but I've never seen one .

 

[anotherscotsman]

Okay, let's see… here are the peer reviews for your submissions:

@kenoh Experiments for children are always fun and a great opportunity to get them interested in science. As chemist, I'm somewhat appalled by the safety goggles being pushed up… The picture has some pleasing contrasts between the dark and the bright parts, which lend it some almost renaissance impression. As I'm spying some food colouring for the "potions" on the table, I'm wondering how a colour version of the picture would look like.

@akash.nu These old brass scientific instruments always have a very pleasing aesthetics in my opinion. I like that the background has a very similar tinge as the instrument itself, giving it a nice tone in tone appearance. (I think the columns in the background are somewhat leaning to the left, aren't they?)

@Susurs Maybe more engineering than science, but what is engineering else than applied science? The depth of field is nicely focused on the valves, which are additionally emphasised by the red colour of the cross section.

@deep diver These native lumps of metal always have fascinating and bizarre shapes, which make for interesting motifs. The Natural History Museum in Berlin has a similar lump of copper. The thin depth of field nicely emphasises the detail on the metal's surface.

@oblomow Unless you are much shorter and younger than I thought, you cut off your head in your selfie. I always found cameras sensitive to other wavelenghts (IR, UV) fascinating, as they show a different, yet strangely familiar view of the world.

@imac wannabe Ah, nice. Not just a picture of an experiment, but the picture is the experiment. The photo took me a moment to parse at first glace, but then it reveals a couple of interesting detail which you just wouldn't see without the aid of such high-speed images.

@mackmgg Whoa. The slight blurriness makes me guess that you aren't (yet) an astrophotographer with years of experience and high-class equipment worth thousands of dollars, but that actually makes this picture just more impressive. The colours and the visible detail are stunning. I would be interested to read some details how you took this picture (exposure time, ISO value, focal length, etc.). Based on the stars being short streaks, I assume you didn't use a star tracker?

@someoldguy Marvellous detail. The curled up legs remind me somewhat of an Egyptian mummy. But what happened to its wings?

@anotherscotsman Well, what can I say: simply stunning. The bubble looks like a strange alien world.

@mollyc Not just surface tension, but also refraction and botany. Certainly quite a bunch of science for one picture. Amazing detail, and the colour and the bright sun remind me that spring's hopefully not too far away.

And now… the verdict.

This actually was far from easy. For a while, I thought there was a clear winner, but the longer I pondered it, the more I realised that one picture struck an unexpected note in me. While not the best one from a purely technical point of view, it shows that in science sometimes some boldness, inventiveness, and simply the will to try new something can lead to surprising, if not necessarily already perfect results.

To cut a long story short: the winner is @mackmgg.

Second place goes to @anotherscotsman, third to @mollyc.
Over to you, mackmgg.

Thanks for such thoughtful commentary and a challenging topic @Janichsan. Even more thanks for the prized 2nd place! Congratulations @mackmgg
ive only tried Astro on one occasion but with little success so looked at recent posts from @kenoh, yourself And others with envy - I see a new challenge if ever we get rid of the clouds.

 

[mollyc]

Congratulations to @mackmgg and thank you for the mention!!

 

[akash.nu]

Congratulations to the winners. Great topic and well judged. On to the next one.

 

[Janichsan]

As @mackmgg hasn't reacted yet, I've sent him a PM. If he remains AWOL, I'm afraid it will fall to @anotherscotsman to come up with the next contest.