Images Dated 10th September 2003

BIO10742

Livingstone daisy or Ice plant (Dorotheanthus bellidiformis) flowers. Leaves are covered by clear bobbles that look like beads of ice, South Africa

© BIOSPHOTO/AUSCAPE All rights reserved

Coloured SEM of a blood clot in coronary artery

Thrombus. Coloured Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) of a thrombus (blood clot) inside a coronary artery of the human heart. The artery has been cross-sectioned, showing its wall (brown) and inner lumen (blue). A blood clot (red) is seen, blocking about 30% of the width of the artery. Two coronary arteries supply blood to the heart muscle. A clot in one of these arteries (called coronary thrombosis) is most commonly caused by the build-up of atheroma (fatty deposits) on the artery walls. Impeded blood flow from a clot starves the heart of oxygen and may lead to heart attack. Magnification: x30 at 6x7cm size. x40 at 4x5ins

© PROFESSOR P.M. MOTTA, G. MACCHIARELLI, S.A NOTTOLA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Coloured TEM of skeletal muscle and nerve fibres

Skeletal muscle. Coloured transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of a section through skeletal (striated) muscle (pink). There is also a band of connective tissue (yellow). The muscle myofibrils, running from top to bottom, are split into contra- ctile units called sarcomeres by the discontinuous Z lines (black). A sarcomere contains protein filaments which can slide over each other to allow the muscle to contract. In the connective tissue are nerve fibres (light green) surrounded by the myelin sheaths (dark green) of Schwann cells. Granulated nuclei (pink) are also visible. Running from top centre to centre is part of a blood vessel. Magnification: x1, 300 at 5x7cm size. x4500 at 7x9.5

© Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library