Thanks, I hate it. Not because of the hole, but because of how unhealthy the skin looks in this picture.
this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2025
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Pik pik pik
Were you expecting it to be smooth like plastic? The top layer is basically a bunch of dead skin cells that keep flaking away from the top layer and building up again from the lower layers.
Not if you moisturize
^/s,^ ^of^ ^course,^ ^though^ ^I’m^ ^sure^ ^you^ ^could^ ^put^ ^this^ ^photo^ ^on^ ^Instagram^ ^and^ ^be^ ^like^ ^“this^ ^is^ ^your^ ^skin^ ^without^ ^my^ ^brand^ ^of^ ^healing^ ^lotion^ ^made^ ^of^ ^baby^ ^foreskin”^ ^and^ ^make^ ^plenty^ ^of^ ^sales^
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Scanning electron microscopes image in a vacuum. Nothing looks 100% like it does at sea level when you suck all the air out.
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how do we know this isn't just a closeup of a tardigrade butthole?
They're well studied.
https://www.livescience.com/62602-tardigrade-poop-video.html
TIL
This deserves its own post.
Also doesn't deserve Twitter, now known as a letter owned by a Gestapo enthusiast.
I bet that feels amazing.
Shit this made me actually laugh out loud in person lol 😂
That was a huge log
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Also why you don't re-use needles:
Wow, I did not expect that.
That's not the main reason why we don't reuse needles.
One of the many
For even into the same patient…
Pfft I reckon we can reuse it once from that pic
It's a little misleading in that the last photo is zoomed in a lot more than the previous ones. This one has that without the extra zoom in.
Could they be cleaned with isopropyl alcohol or an autoclave?
It's less about the dirt than the tip deforming.
When the needle is less pointy, it'll hurt more.
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Autoclave will deform the needle even more. The edge of the tip is made from softer steel so that it is sharper while at the same time more deformable.
Assumably also for manufacturing and safety reasons. You don't want the tip of a needle to shatter inside you, softer steel won't do that. And it's a little bit easier to manufacture with softer steel as well.
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...hmmmmmm...
no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no
Yes ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Hard to believe. To prepare a sample for an electron microscope you need to freeze it to nitrogen temperatures or below. You can fix it using glutaraldehyde, but again, you need to cut it accurately immediately after the penetration. My bet is that either stabbed dead skin or some sort of graphics.
Yes! When I did electron microscopy, we had to cover the fix the samples and cover them with a very thin gold layer beforehand.
Yeah, and it's impossible to catch color!
Also seems wildly overkill to use an electron microscope for this.
I should also call your mom.
Skin kinda looks like dried up paint (I don't paint). Is this dryer than normal, or?
Apparently electron microscopes work in a vacuum. So this is a needle hole in skin, in a vacuum.
In rationalist hell there is a special teapot for people who color SEM images
Any hole's a goal
Most SEMs use a vacuum chamber to get their photos. Also, it's not uncommon to sputter a conductive coating onto the surface you're scanning.
How the hell did they get this photo?
Put a needle in someone, freeze them solid with liquid nitrogen, then take a picture. Throw body out with rest of specimens.
Easy peasy.
It likely wasn't done on an electron microscope, or at least there is no reason to. There is no scale bar, but quick look online tells me a very fine needle is about 0.016in. 500x magnification optical lens would give you more than enough resolution for a photo like that.
Environmental SEMs do not require vacuum and can be used for nonconductive samples. The beam ionizes the air which prevents the sample from charging. Magnification is limited but it is more than enough for this.
You can tell it is SEM and not optical by the depth of field. An optical image at this magnification would have much less DoF so the peaks/valleys would be blurry.
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That old familiar sting.
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