Illuminating Research

Life’s details often go unnoticed. Perhaps no one was looking, or they’re too small to see, but sometimes it’s simply a challenge to take a picture that is true to life. Scientists photographing their precious samples face lighting challenges – hard light creates shadows and glare, soft light requires some areas to be over-exposed so that others can be seen at all. This Buprestidae beetle is having a photoshoot with new 3D-printed kit – a dome placed around the insect scatters soft diffuse light evenly across its body. The problem of glare (top) is solved using a 'light-shielding ring' to block out the direct shine of the surrounding LED lights (bottom). The kit’s design is freely available and adaptable – scaled to different sample sizes – perhaps revealing subtle details in insect models for human disease or one day in human tissue samples, helping to show biomedical research in its best light.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image adapted from work by Fabian Bäumler and colleagues
• Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, Institute of Zoology, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Scientific Reports, July 2020