scholarly journals The True Colors of “False” Color: Representing Data Chromatically in NASA Films

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (17) ◽  
pp. 57-78
Author(s):  
C. E. Harris

This paper investigates the multifaceted uses of color — not (only) to aesthetic ends, but as a tool for translating data into narrative — in a corpus of recent NASA films. Often called ‘false’ color or accused of manipulation, these uses of digital color stray from photorealism but nonetheless have a direct, measurable relationship with physical reality: they use data to render visible that which lies outside the spectrum of visible light. The focus of this paper is on the truth status of these digital films and on the practices used to produce them. It situates them, as a corpus, within and in response to film studies historiographies of color centered around spectacle and the dichotomy of fantasy versus reality, addressing how color can deploy the powers of the false to reveal otherwise invisible truths through art and artifice.

Author(s):  
Shawn Williams ◽  
Xiaodong Zhang ◽  
Susan Lamm ◽  
Jack Van’t Hof

The Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscope (STXM) is well suited for investigating metaphase chromosome structure. The absorption cross-section of soft x-rays having energies between the carbon and oxygen K edges (284 - 531 eV) is 6 - 9.5 times greater for organic specimens than for water, which permits one to examine unstained, wet biological specimens with resolution superior to that attainable using visible light. The attenuation length of the x-rays is suitable for imaging micron thick specimens without sectioning. This large difference in cross-section yields good specimen contrast, so that fewer soft x-rays than electrons are required to image wet biological specimens at a given resolution. But most imaging techniques delivering better resolution than visible light produce radiation damage. Soft x-rays are known to be very effective in damaging biological specimens. The STXM is constructed to minimize specimen dose, but it is important to measure the actual damage induced as a function of dose in order to determine the dose range within which radiation damage does not compromise image quality.


Author(s):  
C. Jacobsen ◽  
J. Fu ◽  
S. Mayer ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
S. Williams

In scanning luminescence x-ray microscopy (SLXM), a high resolution x-ray probe is used to excite visible light emission (see Figs. 1 and 2). The technique has been developed with a goal of localizing dye-tagged biochemically active sites and structures at 50 nm resolution in thick, hydrated biological specimens. Following our initial efforts, Moronne et al. have begun to develop probes based on biotinylated terbium; we report here our progress towards using microspheres for tagging.Our initial experiments with microspheres were based on commercially-available carboxyl latex spheres which emitted ~ 5 visible light photons per x-ray absorbed, and which showed good resistance to bleaching under x-ray irradiation. Other work (such as that by Guo et al.) has shown that such spheres can be used for a variety of specific labelling applications. Our first efforts have been aimed at labelling ƒ actin in Chinese hamster ovarian (CHO) cells. By using a detergent/fixative protocol to load spheres into cells with permeabilized membranes and preserved morphology, we have succeeded in using commercial dye-loaded, spreptavidin-coated 0.03μm polystyrene spheres linked to biotin phalloidon to label f actin (see Fig. 3).


Author(s):  
J.P. Schroeter ◽  
M.A. Goldstein ◽  
J.P. Bretaudiere ◽  
L.H. Michael ◽  
R.L. Sass

We have recently established the existence of two structural states of the Z band lattice in cross section in cardiac as well as in skeletal muscle. The two structural states are related to the contractile state of the muscle. In skeletal muscle at rest, the Z band is in the small square (ss) lattice form, but tetanized muscle exhibits the basket weave (bw) form. In contrast, unstimu- lated cardiac muscle exhibits the bw form, but cardiac muscles exposed to EGTA show the ss form.We have used two-dimensional computer enhancement techniques on digitized electron micrographs to compare each lattice form as it appears in both cardiac and skeletal muscle. Both real space averaging and fourier filtering methods were used. Enhanced images were displayed as grey-scale projections, as contour maps, and in false color.There is only a slight difference between the lattices produced by the two different enhancement techniques. Thus the information presented in these images is not likely to be an artifact of the enhancement algorithm.


Author(s):  
L. Fei

Scanned probe microscopes (SPM) have been widely used for studying the structure of a variety material surfaces and thin films. Interpretation of SPM images, however, remains a debatable subject at best. Unlike electron microscopes (EMs) where diffraction patterns and images regularly provide data on lattice spacings and angles within 1-2% and ∽1° accuracy, our experience indicates that lattice distances and angles in raw SPM images can be off by as much as 10% and ∽6°, respectively. Because SPM images can be affected by processes like the coupling between fast and slow scan direction, hysteresis of piezoelectric scanner, thermal drift, anisotropic tip and sample interaction, etc., the causes for such a large discrepancy maybe complex even though manufacturers suggest that the correction can be done through only instrument calibration.We show here that scanning repulsive force microscope (SFM or AFM) images of freshly cleaved mica, a substrate material used for thin film studies as well as for SFM instrument calibration, are distorted compared with the lattice structure expected for mica.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (21) ◽  
pp. 3693-3697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiu-Jian Ji ◽  
Zhi-Qiang Zhu ◽  
Li-Jin Xiao ◽  
Dong Guo ◽  
Xiao Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

A novel, green and efficient visible-light-promoted decarboxylative aminoalkylation reaction of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines with N-aryl glycines has been described.


Author(s):  
Neelam Sidhar Wright

‘New Bollywood’ has arrived, but its postmodern impulse often leaves film scholars reluctant to theorise its aesthetics. How do we define the style of a contemporary Bollywood film? Are Bollywood films just uninspired Hollywood rip-offs, or does their borrowing signal genuine innovation within the industry? Applying postmodern concepts and locating postmodern motifs in key commercial Hindi films, this book reveals how Indian cinema has changed in the twenty-first century. Equipping readers with an alternative method of reading contemporary Indian cinema, the book takes Indian film studies beyond the standard theme of diaspora, and exposes a new decade of aesthetic experimentation and textual appropriation in mainstream Bombay cinema. A bold celebration of contemporary Bollywood texts, this book radically redefines Indian film and persuasively argues for its seriousness as a field of cinematic studies.


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