LiveScience's Image of the Day

Microscopic Monsters

Monday October 6, 2008

081006-cells-04.jpg

More Images...

What look like tennis balls gone evil are actually the tiny suckers on the tentacles of squid. The miniscule suction cups, with diameters of around 400 µm (400 millionths of a meter, or 0.04 centimeters), can be seen in detail in this false-color microscope image. The suckers are lined with fangs (in white) that help grab onto the squid's prey.

The Loligo pealei, or long-finned squid, have eight arms and two tentacles, all of which are coated with the monstrous suckers. This image, taken by Jessica D. Schiffman and Caroline L. Schauer of Drexel University, won an honorable mention for photography in the 2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, sponsored by the journal Science and the National Science Foundation.

-- LiveScience Staff

 

Image Credit: Jessica D. Schiffman and Caroline L. Schauer, Drexel University

Advertisement

From the Blogs

LiveScience Blogs
  1. Can A Computer Simulation Solve The Mystery Of Dark Matter?
  2. Modern Gossip Magazine Culture Began With Celebrity Obituaries
  3. 12,000 Year Old Shaman Burial Site Discovered In Northern Israel - And It Was A Woman
  4. Learning About Lightning - Interferometer Records Discharge In Detail To The Microsecond
  5. India To The Moon: Chandrayaan-1 Settles Into Lunar Transfer Trajectory
  6. Those Dang Transcription Factors
  7. Pretty Women Make Men Shortsighted
  1. 10.30.2008 | Leonard David
    Private Moon Lander Group Teams with NASA
    Keep an eye out for Odyssey Moon Ventures — one of the contenders in the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize competition — to announce they... ...
  2. 10.25.2008 | Leonard David
    Armadillo Scraps Further Lunar Lander Challenge Attempts
    Update 7: The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge is over for the day. John Carmack and his Armadillo Aerospace team have declared no more... ...

Related Items from the LiveScience Store

  1. Go to Store
  2. Go to Store

More Stores to Explore