Wow

Who knew that every grain of sand on the planet is this stunning and unique?! Dr. Gary Greenburg did when he magnified grains of sand and fragments of shell 110-250 times. The grain in the first image (the blue piece in the center) is surrounded by bits of coral, a pink shell fragment, a foram (a type of protozoa) and volcanic material. The second image displays grains from a beach in Maui and the last pictures star shaped sand grains from Okinawa. I thought back to these pictures after seeing a show at the planetarium at Griffith Park about the universe. Carl Sagan said, "The total number of stars in the universe is greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches on the planet Earth." Incredible. If you're as blown away by these images as I am, you can get Dr. Greenburg's photography book here.
PS: I had a great post written for this and then Safari went berserk. This is what materialized after a frustration fueled cookie binge.


All images by Dr. Gary Greenburg. Originally found on InspirationGreen.