2020 RMS Digital Calendar
Don't forget to download the RMS digital calendar. Each month you can have a new scientific image as your computer wallpaper or desktop, included on the image is the calendar for that month with all the important RMS events highlighted.
Or if you'd prefer you can download:
All the images used were submitted to our annual calendar image competition, congratulations to those selected. You can download the 2020 images here:
January
Inside a lichen
Mineral crystals from within the heart of a lichen collected from a Birch tree in Dundee. The crystals have been coloured using Photoshop. (Scanning Electron Microscope - JEOL JEM 7400F)
by Dr Alan Prescott, Dundee Imaging Facility, University of Dundee
Sponsored by Jeol (UK) Ltd
Download the image in the dimension format which best fits your screen; 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
February
Imidazole crystals viewed by polarised light microscopy
Imidazole crystals were formed on a slide and viewed by polarised light microscopy. The crystals were formed by evaporating an aqueous solution of imidazole onto a slide. (Equipment used: Olympus BH2S, SPlan10x objective, polarised light, Canon EOS500D camera on custom mount to trinocular head)
by Neil Taylor, SciArtImages
Sponsored by KEYENCE
Download the image in the dimension format which best fits your screen; 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
March
The Last Supper
A human macrophage enjoys its last meal. The bacteria here (in green) are mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli. These bacteria will eventually overwhelm the macrophage’s defences leading to its death. In 2017 tuberculosis was responsible for an estimated 1.6million deaths worldwide. (Equipment used: FEI Quanta Scanning electron microscope)
by Tony Fearns, Host-Pathogen Interactions in Tuberculosis Lab, The Francis Crick Institute
Sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific, Materials & Structural Analysis
Download the image in the dimension format which best fits your screen; 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
April
Biotite Schist
Photomicrograph of a biotite schist (metamorphic rock) collected near Tampere, Finland. The image shows a crystal of biotite surrounded by a muscovite-quartz fine-grained matrix. In the biotite, the blue dots are related to metamicrization of tiny zircon inclusions, arranged in an unusual pattern of parallel lines. (Equipment used: Nikon D5500 on Zeiss Axioscop 40pol, transmitted light, crossed polarizers and lambda plate)
by Bernardo Cesare, University of Padova, Italy
Sponsored by KEYENCE
Download the image in the dimension format which best fits your screen; 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
May
Spring
The SEM image was collected from a copper pyrophosphate sample. It appears to show a bunch of flower buds, reminding the viewer of early spring. The image was post-processed in Photoshop for colouring (Equipment used: Zeiss Merlin)
by Jiale Wang, University of Oxford
Download the image in the dimension format which best fits your screen; 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
June
Epigyne of spider - Labulla thoracica, Linyphiidae
The epigyne is the female sexual organ of a spider, located on the underside of the abdomen. For this particular species both the male and female sexual organs are fairly pronounced, given the size of the species. Any resemblance to a face is entirely coincidental! (Equipment used: Specimen sputter coated with gold using a Quorum Q150RS with ‘rota-coater’; then imaged in an FEI Inspect S-50 SEM using low vacuum mode)
by Dr. Jeremy Poole
Download the image in the dimension format which best fits your screen; 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
July
Vital Systems
In a single experiment this transgenic larval zebrafish has allowed us to make powerful observations at the level of the whole organism, whilst simultaneously permitting exploration at the subcellular level. In magenta you can see the atrial and ventricular chambers of the heart, thanks to genetic modifications that allow us to label the cardiomyocytes with fluorescent protein. These muscular powerhouse cells generate the force needed to pump blood around the body. The cyan labels the endothelial cells, revealing the arteries and veins that form the vascular network channelling blood to and from the heart. If you look closely, you can see the nucleus of some of these cells and some small dynamic protrusions that the cell uses to interact with its environment. (Equipment used: Imaging was performed on a Leica TCS SP8 AOBS confocal laser scanning microscope with a 25x/0,95 W HC FLUOTAR objective, part of the Wolfson Bioimaging Facility)
by Aaron Scott from the Richardson Lab, University of Bristol
Download the image in the dimension format which best fits your screen; 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
August
Hornblendite from the Lewisian Gneiss, Scotland rock thin section
Thin rock section of Hornblendite from Avernish, Highlands of Scotland viewed by polarised light microscopy. Hornblendite is a metamorphic rock and shows laths of actinolite in random orientation (actinolite is a member of the hornblende family) From the Lewisian Gneiss of North West Scotland, The oldest rocks in the UK, and amongst the oldest anywhere on earth. About 2500 million years old, half the age of the planet. (Equipment used: Olympus BH2S, SPlan4x objective, polarised light, Canon EOS500D camera on custom mount to trinocular head)
by Neil Taylor, SciArtImages
Sponsored by KEYENCE
Download the image in the dimension format which best fits your screen; 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
September
Mouth Parts of a House Bee, Maximum Intensity Projection
The UoL Centre for Cell Imaging help researchers to visualise many different types of samples, from as small as a bacteria, to as large as a bee. This images was taken from a commercially available slide, to demonstrate tile-scanned reflective light confocal microscopy. Slide reference: AmScope ‘Housebee mouth parts, w.m.’ (Equipment used: Zeiss LSM 880 multiphoton, confocal maximum projection)
by Jennifer Adcott, University of Liverpool, Centre for Cell Imaging
Download the image in the dimension format which best fits your screen; 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
October
An Al3Sc particle act as nucleation site for the Al grain
The SEM image shows an in-situ formed Al3Sc particle sitting at the centre of an Al grain, indicating that this Al3Sc particle acted as nucleation site for the Al grain during solidification of the Al alloy. Moreover, some details about the in-situ growth of this Al3Sc particle during solidification can also be noticed. (Equipment used: Zeiss Crossbeam 340)
by Feng Wang, Brunel University London
Download the image in the dimension format which best fits your screen; 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
November
Flakes on nanotubes
Exotic nanostructures of hydrothermally grown cerium and copper oxide on carbon nanotubes using water-soluble multinuclear metal-acrocyclic complexes (Equipment used: NEON 40 (Zeiss))
by Sergei Gusev, Institute for Physics of Microstructures of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IPM RAS)
Download the image in the dimension format which best fits your screen; 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
December
Christmas Cactus
The image shows an stigma and pollen from a Christmas cactus flower. The sample was unstained (autofluorescence only) and mounted in perflurodecalin to remove any air bubbles. (Equipment used: Leica SP8 confocal microscope)
by David Johnston, Biomedical Imaging Unit, University of Southampton
Download the image in the dimension format which best fits your screen; 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10.
