SCIENCE AS ART
Crystal butterfly
Samantha McBride, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Scanning electron microscope image shows gypsum crystals that formed from rapid evaporation of calcium sulfate solution on a silicon substrate. The symmetric leaf-like crystals at the center of the image, a typical morphology of gypsum crystals, formed early in the evaporation process and had more time to grow in a symmetric and regular way. In contrast, the dendritic forms surrounding the “butterfly” formed at the very end of evaporation, and thus grew into chaotic dendrites typical of diffusion-limited growth. Colors and a cartoon butterfly torso were added. The horizontal scale of the image is 50 µm across.
A Finalist from the Science as Art competition at the 2019 MRS Spring Meeting.
Copyright for all Science as Art images belongs to the Materials Research Society. To request permission to re-use the images, please contact Anita Miller.