Tuesday Crustie: Neural

Crayfish are on a photography contest roll.

Last week, I showed Michael Bok’s winning picture of Louisiana red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii).

Same species, but a rather different view...

These are neurons that connect to the big muscles in the tail that the crayfish use to swim with – and that so many people and predators find so tasty. The staining technique is called cobalt backfilling. This is many pictures compiled into one. It’s a “stack” of photos merged into one using Helicon Focus, which I wrote about here.

Why do I have all the stuff defacing the image? Because I want people to see the full sized, pristine image in the calendar!

This picture is going to be featured in a fundraising calendar for the J.B. Johnston Club. The J.B. Johnston Club is an organization that meets right before the Neuroscience meeting. They have a student travel award that they are raising money for. Kara Yopak had the idea of creating a calendar with twelve months of images of neurons, brains, and organisms. This is such a great idea, because neurons are always beautiful.

The calendar will be on sale at this year’s J.B Johnston Club meeting. Thirteen images, 8½ × 11" on glossy paper, all for $20!

You want one, don’t you? Email Kara Yopak to inquire about how you can get a copy! If you won’t be in Washington, DC for the J.B. Johnston Club meeting or Neuroscience, tell her were you are located so she can work out the posting details.

I don’t know what month this image will be. I’m kind of hoping for February.