If you cracked open the top of a skull and looked straight down, this is what you'd see. The nasal cavity is right under all those holes (the "cribriform plate"--the holes are actually for olfactory nerves). The flat thing in the middle is a kind of spike (the "crista galli," or "cock's comb") that helps anchor one of the stronger membranes in the braincase. The red dot above it, which I considered cloning out, is actually a distinct anatomical landmark called the foramen cecum. And the area on the left, where the bone is thinner and the light is coming through, is actually the roof of the orbit.

There's your anatomy lesson for the day. :)




Date: April 2009
Where/What: inside a skull
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: Mellow Yellow (Donovan)
Thankful for: having a nice protective skull--it's a little like having an exoskeleton for your brain. Speaking of which--in the words of my 10th-grade biology teacher, the difference between an exoskeleton and an endoskeleton is whether it goes "crack-squish" or "squish-crack," respectively. The more you know!...

Braaaaaaaiiiiiiiiins!

As I was uploading some photos last week, I started leafing through some of my unpublished archives from the past year. There are a few neat ones; I'm gonna try to post them over the next few weeks.





Date: January 2010
Where/What: Braaaaaaaaaain
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: 3.5
ISO: 800

Listening to: Money for Nothing (Dire Straights)
Thankful for: brains

I bought some raspberries yesterday. They demanded to have their photos taken. I humbly obliged.

When they started making other demands, I ate them.

(This image is also available as a desktop wallpaper.)



Date: November 2008
Where/What: a raspberry! In my hand.
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 100

Listening to: Clap Your Hands (Pale Young Gentlemen)
Thankful for: Soap.

I know that close-up fetus-kittens in a jar is exactly what everyone was expecting to see when they clicked on whatever link brought them to this page.

If it wasn't, just try to appreciate the fragile beauty of death.

And spay/neuter your cat.




Date: July 2008
Where/What: Ocean County College, Anatomy & Physiology lab
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: Battle Hymn of the Republic (Wilhousky)
Thankful for: veterans

Man oh man. I had my first gross anatomy exam last Wednesday. It was 60% of our grade. Holy shit.

But I passed! I didn't rock it, but it's gross anatomy. I'll take what I can get.

I wish I could spend a while defrying my brain, but I need to work on a few big art-type projects that I was putting off 'til the exam was over. Rrrrrrgh.

Welllllllllllll, nobody said this would be easy, right? :)



Date: May 2008
Where/What: my bloodshot eyes (courtesy of contact lenses) + a photo of a dissected sheep's brain
Camera: Fuji S700


Listening to: Windchester [not, apparently, 'Winchester'] Cathedral (New Vaudeville Band)
Thankful for: support, no matter how unearned it may be

Soooooooo if you crack open one of your bones, and thoroughly clean it, and let it dry out for a while... this is the network of sponginess (formally known as trabeculae) that you'd find inside.

Don't believe me? Seriously. Try it.



Date: September 2008
Where/What: more bones in my room!
...if you're still wondering about that, we anatomy students get bone boxes, which are rickety wooden boxes with about 15 bones (plus a fully articulated hand and foot) so that we can handle the bones, examine all their bumps and grooves, y'know, get acquainted with 'em.
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/210
Aperture: f 4.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: You Were the Last High (Dandy Warhols)
Thankful for: pipe cleaners. For cleaning my pipes.

I think this looks like Vulcan's forge.

It might look like a baked good with inexplicable holes in it.

It is, in reality, my desk lamp shining through some sacral foramina.

So really, this is a pretty cool photo no matter how you think of it.

(Why do I have a sacrum in my room, you may ask? Because I can, that's why.)



Date: September 2008
Where/What: holes in a sacrum
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 5.6
ISO: 200

Listening to: I know an old lady who swallowed a fly
Thankful for: Not having swallowed a fly recently (to the best of my knowledge)

And between my fingers, I hold the three parts of a small intestine.



Date: July 2008
Where/What: microscope slide at Ocean County College, NJ
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: Godzilla (Blue Oyster Cult)
Thankful for: not breaking my foot and not having a concussion

I opened the door
And left it standing
The door to my heart
Your love demanding
But you were not willing
To just step inside
Now the door to my heart
Is still open wide

-Buddy Holly, "Door to My Heart"



Date: January 2008
Where/What: dissected cow heart
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (the Beatles)
Thankful for: not having any major medical maladies (at the moment, knock on wood)

To me, there's something mildly disturbing about coral growing out of Tupperware. There's a small hint of "if you don't wash your Tupperware, LOOK WHAT WILL GROW IN IT! Do you want weird creatures growing out of last month's spaghetti? NO! DUMP YOUR LEFTOVERS!"

Buuuuuuuut that could just be me.



Date: August 2008
Where/What: Shedd Aquarium, Chicago, IL
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 4.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: Tu vuo' fa l'american (Quadro Nuevo)
Thankful for: comfy sneakers

Left: seminiferous tubules, containing sperm and pre-sperm.
Right: ovarian follicles, containing eggs and pre-eggs.

I can't tell you how long I've been wanting to do something like this. My technique leaves something to be desired, but I took these photos with my own little point-and-shoot; because they are my own images (though not my own slides), I am perhaps prouder of these blurs than I should be. :)



Date: July 2008
Where/What: slides under a Leica microscope
Camera: Fuji S700
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f 3.5
ISO: 200

Listening to: Funkytown (Lipps Inc.)
Thankful for: macro capabilities