Images Dated 4th December 2007

Submarine Parachute Assistance Group (SPAG) insertion 04/12/2007

This image shows the Submarine Parachute Assistance Group (SPAG) team deploying by aircraft, setting up a floating casualty reception centre and treating simulated casualties as they escape from a stricken submarine.
The SPAG are trained to insert by Hercules aircraft at long range and assist submariners in peril. During Exercise Pacific Reach 07, the insertion was simulated by helicopter from the Royal Australian Navy's Fleet Base West.
Pacific Reach is a triennial Asia-Pacific submarine rescue exercise designed to promote regional cooperation in submarine rescue and demonstrate regional submarine rescue and diving interoperability

© Crown Copyright

Rievaulx Abbey J060223

RIEVAULX ABBEY, North Yorkshire. The arches and buttresses of the north side of the abbey church

© Historic England

Abbey, Arch, Church, Column, Gothic, Medieval, Pillar, Religion, Ruin

Leaf tissue structure, SEM

Leaf tissue structure. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a section through the edge of a leaf from the Common Box (Buxus sempervirens). The surface of the leaf is covered in closely packed circular cells (brown) that make up the epidermis. Below the epidermis are palisade mesophyll layers, made up of elongated column-like cells (green) containing chloroplasts. Chloroplasts (not seen) contain a green pigment called chlorophyll, which the plant uses to harness energy from the Sun (a process known as photosynthesis). At the centre of the leaf (red) is the spongy mesophyll, which has large intracellular spaces for gaseous exchange. Magnification: x200 when printed 10 centimetres tall

© STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY