Beauty and fascination of morphologies of the micro- and macrocosmos

Abstract

Twenty years of experience of the authors with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) led to the idea to present a collection of striking examples of micrographs of intrinsic structural beauty as a birthday present to Professor Fresenius. Harmonic structures, marvellous or scurrilous SEM micrographs of inorganic materials are followed by some examples from the living microcosmos. Sometimes, striking parallelisms to our macroscopic world can be detected, which ultimately lead to some outstanding macroscopic morphologies of the Tyrolean Alps. This is an experiment which tries to encompass fascinating morphologies of the microcosmos and morphologies of the environment of the authors, the Tyrolean Alps. It should empasize the totalitarian aspect of our existence as scientists in a specific environment although one of the authors has recently moved to a less dramatic landscape.