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. 2022 Apr 4;380(2220):20200389.
doi: 10.1098/rsta.2020.0389. Epub 2022 Feb 14.

The biology of imaging

Emmanuel G Reynaud  1
Affiliations

The biology of imaging

Emmanuel G Reynaud. Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. .

Abstract

On the cave wall, a discrete but stunning silhouette runs across the uneven surface. Standing still for more than 45 000 years, this is a witness to the ever-enduring need of mankind to image the world around us. The biological world that feeds us is a primary source of inspiration but also an essential element to creating the imaging systems we use every day. But once obscured by the technological jargon and the thunderstorm of numbers and algorithms, those origins fade away into the background. This small piece is about a few marvellous little stories about the biology of imaging, not the debate about the origin of vision and the eye but rather about plants and animals that open the world to new dimensions of biological imaging to fully image the biological world. An eye for an eye. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Super-resolution structured illumination microscopy (part 2)'.

Keywords: bioluminescence; fluorescence; history of science.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The Nimrud lens, AKA Layard lens, ground polished rock crystal, 750BC–710BC, Neo-Assyrian. (British Museum). (Online version in colour.)
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Cinchona calisaya. Illustration from Köhler's (not the illumination one) Medizinal-Pflanzen in naturgetreuen Abbildungen mit kurz erläuterndem Texte v. 1, Biodiversity Heritage library [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/303722]. (Online version in colour.)
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Aequorea aequorea by Charles Alexandre Lesueur and Francois Peron. This is the established type use for the Aequorea genus [4]. (Online version in colour.)
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
The Aequorea cutting machine, designed by F. H. Johnson who was working in Shimomura laboratory, to optimize purification by cutting only the light-emitting rings from the bell. The jellyfish was spun while the disk rotated, the ring was dropping in a dedicated box. (Naval Research Reviews, 1970, 16–23).
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Lampyris noctiluca, (firefly) (Linnaeus, 1767). (Online version in colour.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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