This Is Rock(ed) Science

Together with Cobus Visagie and his image of fungi, Dr. Bernardo Cesare, Professor of Petrology at the Department of Geosciences of the University of Padova (Italy), has been awarded third prize in our ZEISS Microscopy Image Contest for his image of a Brazilian agate.

I have been studying rocks for 35 years using polarized microscopy as a fundamental tool for my research. Over the years, I have developed aesthetic photomicrography as a side activity. The awarded image is one of my best recent images. It shows a very special Brazilian agate made of extremely fine-grained quartz (chalcedony), which is much finer than in common agates.

The very fine grain-size (about 10 µm) is apparent in the central and upper bands of the image. The first challenge with such an image concerns sample preparation, because agates are very hard so cutting, grinding and polishing them becomes a nightmare for the thin section manufacturers. The second challenge is obtaining a sharp focused image because the grain size is smaller than the sample thickness: this induces a little bit of blur in the central and upper bands of the photo.

I love this image because of the unique sample it comes from. With the horizontal banding and the coarser quartz crystals in the lower part resembling a crowd (some might see penguins), it has been appropriately named  The Concert. Viewers find this image and the title very evocative.