Microscopic Realms: Where Art Meets Science
Experience the fusion of photography and science as we delve into microscopic realms, revealing the hidden beauty of microbiology, crystals, and household chemicals.
Unveiling the World of Hidden Microbes
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Life in a Spaceship Life in a Terrarium (Microscopic Photography of Slime Mold Growing on a Pineapple Guava)​
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Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards: National Gold Medal and Regional Gold Key 2025
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This display provides a fascinating glimpse into the hidden world of microscopic life: tiny, often overlooked organisms that thrive all around us.
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Slime molds, for instance, aren’t actually molds. They’re single-celled organisms called Myxomycetes. Despite having no limbs, they glide slowly across surfaces using pseudopods, inching along at roughly a millimeter per hour.
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To reveal their strange and captivating forms, these organisms were carefully transferred onto glass slides and photographed through an optical stereo zoom microscope, showcasing the eerie elegance of these tiny travelers.
Extraordinary Splendor of Ordinary Household Chemicals
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Feeding the Hatchlings (Microscopic Photograph of Vitamin C Crystal)
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Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards: National Silver Medal and Regional Gold Key 2024
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Everyday household substances like vanilla, MSG, and vitamin C can form stunning, art-like patterns.
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I applied solutions of these chemicals onto glass slides and observed as they naturally self-assembled into intricate arrays of translucent crystals.
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The vibrant colors seen in the image (known as birefringence) are created when polarized light interacts with the crystals, whose microscopic structures reflect light in unique ways depending on their structural orientation.​
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These images were taken using a polarizing light microscope.
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Macaw Majesty (Vitamin C crystal)
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Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards: Regional Silver Key 2025​
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Life in a Terrarium (Slime Mold Growing on an Pineapple Guava)
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Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards: Regional Silver Key 2025​
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Post-Historic Crustacean (Monosodium Glutamate Crystal)
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Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards: Regional Silver Key 2024
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Flu-Fighting Stained Glass (Vitamin C crystal)
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Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards: Regional Silver Key 2025​
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Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards: Regional honorable mention 2024 & 2025
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10th edition of Fine Art Photography Awards: Experimental amateur winner 2023
Research: The Science Behind the Stunning Patterns of Vanilla Crystal Thin Films
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Albert Wang, et al “Optical anisotropy of crystallized vanillin thin film: the science behind the art”, Journal of Emerging Investigator, https://emerginginvestigators.org/articles/23-264, July, 2024.
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Abstract: ​Vanillin, a common household flavoring agent, turns into mesmerizing artwork under a polarizing microscope. This artwork can be used to decipher crystal nucleation and growth mechanisms. The trick to create such artwork is to grow a crystalline vanillin thin film tens of micrometers thick to allow white light to be transmitted through a singular, instead of multiple overlapping, crystal grains. A series of experiments were carried out to determine the optimal conditions to grow such single crystal vanillin films ...
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Albert Wang, et al "Crystallization Kinetics of Vanillin Thin Films", Journal of Emerging Investigator, https://emerginginvestigators.org/articles/24-315, May 2025.
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Abstract: We grew vanillin thin films on microscope glass slides and observed the emergence of tiny crystallites and their continuous growth until these crystals impinged upon each other and fully covered the entire glass slides. Intrigued by the underlying driving force to transform vanillin liquids into translucent crystalline films, we started to investigate their nucleation and growth mechanism ...
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Chemical Concentricity (MSG crystal)
