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Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · 3d

Autumnal Hints. This is an image of a crystalline film that grew on one of my microscope slides after I allowed a solution of the amino acids alanine and glutamine to recrystallize on it. Made me think of autumn leaves on the ground. This scene would fit within the confines of a bell pepper seed.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · 7d

What you see...A recrystallization of the amino acid alanine (a molecular building block of our proteins) and citric acid, which helps drive a lot of cellular business and that also adds a nice tang in some recipes. This pretty patch on my microscope slide could fit on the face of a sesame seed.

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Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · 9d

ICYMI. Here I take color away from your world and then give it back to you.

SPIE @spie.org · 9d

Color doesn’t exist outside the brain. 🧠

From fruit flies to humans, perception transforms raw light into hues, even nonspectral ones like purple. New work is mapping the neural circuits that make color possible. 🎨

Learn more about color perception in the Sept/Oct issue of #PhotonicsFocus!

A most curious absence of color outside your head

Neuroscientists are still working to unravel how humans perceive color.

spie.org

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Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · 9d

I love amino acids. They're the building blocks of the proteins in our bodies. Here the amino acid combo of alanine and glutamine recrystallized on a glass microscope slide into billowing formations. The area in the scene would fit within the confines of a bell pepper seed.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · 11d

Dissolve the combo of the amino acid alanine and the sweetener stevia in a strong ethanol solution (75% DIY Everclear will do). Recrystallize the solutes on a heated slide. You might get kelpesque formations like this The area here is the size of a guppy's eye.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · 15d

Two amino acids, threonine and glycine, recrystallized from a solution in Mezcal into a tree-ring formation the size of a sesame seed.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · 20d

Amino Acid ICE. Here, the combo of two amino acids, alanine and glutamine, which are buildings blocks of the proteins underlying life, recrystallized from a solution into a composition that serves for me as a crystalline metaphor of current affairs.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · 22d

As the combo of alanine and glutamine – two of the 20 amino acids that string together into your proteins – recrystallized from a solution in a wee-bit of whiskey, they assumed plenty of arresting forms. Like these. That blue leaf-mimic would fit readily within the confines of this letter O.

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Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Sep 1

There is no color out there. It's all in your head where you very own master color-maker resides. I am happy to share with you my latest article for Photonics Focus. Gratitude to managing editor William G. Schulz and his editorial team for working with me on this project.

spie.org/news/photoni...

A most curious absence of color outside your head

Neuroscientists are still working to unravel how humans perceive color.

spie.org

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Aug 23

Another looker from my keeps-on-giving "Ascorbic on Time" series. Vitamin C, ascorbic acid, C6H8O6, can crystallize into a wondrous diversity of forms. The scene here would just about fit inside this O. Makes me think of an overhead image of mountainous territory that dips to a lakeside.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Aug 19

Percocet = oxycodone + acetaminophen. Here those ingredients – the stuff of pain relief and opioid crises – recrystallized onto a microscope slide. This is one of the more grabbing glitter-speck sized formations I saw through my microscope.

Reposted by Ivan Amato

Knowable Magazine @knowablemag.bsky.social · Aug 15

PS- If you’re a #SeattleWorldCon attendee who is not *yet* a Knowable fan, here is a shameless plug:

If you’re looking for research-backed, accessibly written, paywall-free science journalism to inform your worldbuilding… we’ve got you.

For example, some articles relevant to the Hugo finalists 🧵

Knowable Magazine @knowablemag.bsky.social · Aug 15

Any Knowable fans at #SeattleWorldCon2025? We’ve stashed some Knowable Magazine (and Knowable en español) stickers in the freebies lounge. Be sure to pick one up while you’re hunting for ARCs!

Photo of a knowable magazine sticker in front of the FREEBIES LOUNGE banner

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Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Aug 14

Cane sugar, sucrose, the disaccharide of glucose and fructose, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁. Call it what you will, it sure looked great through my microscope after I recrystallized it from a solution in Vodka, a handy ethanol solvent. The area show just about fits within a @cocacola carbonation bubble.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Aug 12

Played hooky today. Went to the fabulous stream-fed Highlands Natural Pool in Ringwood, NJ. Lots of dragonflies, including this one. My guess is that this specimen is a very dark, mature male Slaty Skimmer. Loved how tolerant he was of my invasive approach with an iPhone.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Aug 10

Consider embracing missing out on missing out. You would be amazed at how widely liberating this practice can be.

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Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Aug 10

Vitamin C recrystallized on my microscope slide as a planetary background, while the mannitol (from a chemical class known as sugar alcohols) in the solution took the form of jagged crystalline moons, all in an area the size of a pepper flake.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Aug 10

Vitamin C recrystallized on my microscope slide as a planetary background, while the mannitol (from a chemical class known as sugar alcohols) in the solution took the form of jagged crystalline moons, all in an area the size of pepper flake.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Aug 8

A visit to the moon tonight. It might be cracking.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Aug 6

Alanine is one of the 20 amino acids that sequence into proteins like letters sequencing into words and sentences. Stevia is a sugar substitute. I recrystallized the pair from an alcohol solution onto a microscope slide. Here's what one crystalline patch the size of this O looked like.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Aug 4

A waxing gibbous New Jersey Moon tonight, 8/3/25, through my Celestron and a hand-held iPhone to the eyepiece.

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Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Aug 3

Vitamin C, ascorbic acid, C6H8O6, can crystallize into a wondrous celebration of form, texture and color. Here's one embodiment with palette that emerged by passing the illuminating light through a polarizing filter and a square of clear plastic wrap. The image would fit in this O.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Aug 1

Sometimes demons lurk among my crystals. This one showed up in a recrystallization of aspirin, aka acetylsalicylic acid, aka C9H8O4. Among the many arresting forms on my microscope slide is this haunting one, with the mercy that it covers an area that would fit inside this small o.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Jul 28

A hovering hummingbird moth gathering nectar from a Bee Balm plant and an Eastern Amberwing dragonfly that had alighted on a plant of its choice in Princeton, MA.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Jul 23

Incision into Where. Another from my recent recrystallization series with the amino-acid combo of glycine and alanine, from a solution in bourbon. The crystal patch in this image would fit on a hot pepper flake.

Ivan Amato @ivanamato.bsky.social · Jul 19

Scenes from Analgesia. Recrystallized onto a microscope slide from a solution in ethanol, aspirin (aka acetylsalicylic acid, aka C9H8O4) assumed many arresting forms. Here's one scene from the slide that caught my eye. It covers an area the size of a teeny pill suitable for a chipmunk.

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