April Gallery

Apollo 17 photograph of whole earth

Home planet. Classic photograph of the Earth, taken from Apollo 17 as it made its way to the Moon in December 1972. The continent of Africa fills the upper left quadrant, with Arabia at top centre. The Antarctic ice cap is seen at bottom centre. Apollo 17 was launched on 7 December 1972. Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt landed on the Moon, whilst Ronald Evans stayed in the command module in lunar orbit. Apollo 17 re-entered on 19 December 1972, and was the last of the Apollo Moon flights. This photograph was taken by Eugene Cernan. Overspilts moved to E050/247; these are also slightly different colour

© NASA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Bacterial DNA

False-colour transmission electron micrograph of the bacterium Escherichia coli. The bacterial cell in the centre of the picture was treated with an enzyme to weaken its wall, then placed in water, causing its DNA to be ejected. The DNA is visible as the gold coloured fibrous mass lying around the bacterial shell. The length of the DNA is 1.5 millimetres or 1000 times the length of the cell from which it came. E.coli is usually an harmless inhabitant of the human intestinal tract. It is a major laboratory organism & much of the understanding of genetics has come from the study of this bacterium. Magnification: x7850 at 35mm, x15, 700 at 6x7cm size

© DR GOPAL MURTI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY