The Picture of Health

Maze

Tangled Web

Credit: Othaniel Philip R. Balisan, The Philippine Heart Center, Manila, Philippines.

Cytology Thin Prep Slide

Mucin-Stained Stomach Cells

Credit: Casey Wahl, Motic Digital Pathology, San Francisco, USA.

Heart Shapes of a Nucleus

Credit: Lara Pijuan, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona.

Van Gogh

Credit: Randell Arias, Zamboanga City Medical Center, Philippines.

Stream of Fire During Fall in Wilderness

War in Heaven

Credit: Franz Jobert L. Sebastian, The Philippine Heart Center, Manila, Philippines.

Balance

Credit: Michaela Nguyen (@Neuygn), Baptist Health South Florida Department of Pathology, USA.

Hibiscus

Hyaline Sky

Hawaii

Three Tables

Credit: Cooper Schwartz, Alpert Medical School at Brown University, Providence, USA.

A Wild Doggo Appears

Credit: Felipe S. Templo, Jr., Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City, Philippines.

Funny Face From Urine

Credit: Sarah Kelting, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, USA.

Epithelium's Fungal Fate

Credit: Keenan Hogan, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, USA.

SKY Illustration

Credit: Murty Vundavalli, Associate Professor, Institute for Cancer Genetics, Columbia University, New York, USA.

Pathology of the Eye

Credit: Paula Keene Pierce, President, Excalibur Pathology, Inc., Norman, USA.

Abnormal Lymphocytes

Credit: Nina Simonini, Medical Laboratory Technician, AdventHealth Oncology and Hematology Lab, Orlando, USA.

Almost Blue

Et Lux Perpetua

None of Us Are Free

Credit: Luis Humberto Cruz Contreras, Hospital Materno Infantil, Irapuato, Mexico.

Tick Bite

Credit: Rola H. Ali, Associate Professor of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, and Pathologist, Cytogenetics/Molecular Lab, Kuwait Cancer Control Center, Kuwait City, Kuwait.

The Art of Fluorescence Deconvolution Imaging, Part III

A series of artistic images created using fluorescence deconvolution microscopy

Credit: Brian J. Poindexter and Roger J. Bick, Multi-User Fluorescence Imaging and Microscopy Core Lab, UT McGovern Medical School, USA.

Orbit

Tropospheric Ornaments

Credit: Scott Taft, Tucson, USA.

Kissper & When the Cat Is Away, the Blue Mouse Will Play

Credit: Rico P. Lasaca, Our Lady of Porziuncola Hospital Inc., Calbayog City, Western Samar, Philippines.

Basic Fuchsin Five

Gram Stain Flash

Micropsychology

The cells/organisms featured in this animated GIF are Candida albicans, PMNs with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Weissella confusa, Streptococcus parasanguinis, Micrococcus luteus, Geotrichum capitatum, Streptococcus gallolyticus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella aerogenes, spermatozoa, Bacillus cereus, MSSA, VRE, Cutibacterium acnes, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus thuringiensis, Streptococcus sp., Eggerthella lenta, and squamous epithelial cells. Specimen sources featured include sputum, BAL, vaginal swab, blood culture, urine, tracheal aspirate, pelvic fluid, and biliary fluid. Slides and stains are ubiquitous in laboratory medicine, so much so that they can be easily overlooked. While they can be aesthetic, that quality is secondary to their utilitarian function. By disorienting the familiar microscopic image through an unfamiliar rollercoaster of kaleidoscopic blinks, rotations, and hops, their diagnostic power spins out of focus, and out of control of the viewer. There is not enough time to fixate on any particular image, which may be unusual for the seasoned laboratorian. The process of creating this GIF is equally paradoxical; to create seamless rapid successions, the construction and deliberation of each frame has to be painstakingly slow.

Credit: Ansel Oommen, Clinical Laboratory Technologist, New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, and Research Assistant, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, USA.