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  • Bill Wysock in his backyard, in Monrovia (near Hollywood), California. Fiery sparks crackle from a metal tube as he also lights a 40-watt light bulb in his hands. He is sitting on a metal disk linked by a cable to his Tesla coil: a transformer producing high-frequency currents that pass safely over the surface of his body. Low-frequency currents would pass through it, meeting resistance and causing injury. MODEL RELEASED (1992)
    USA_SCI_LIG_11_xs.jpg
  • Boston Museum of Science electrostatic display operator, Don Salvatore, demonstrates the safety of a Faraday cage as he is protected from a 2.5-million-volt Van de Graaff static electricity generator. A Faraday cage is an earthed screen made of metal wire that surrounds an electric device in order to shield it from external electrical fields. Artificial lightning passes through the metal frame. Physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff invented this model in 1931. MODEL RELEASED (1992)
    USA_SCI_LIG_04_xs.jpg
  • Rocket launch preparation. Technicians preparing several balloons for use in an amateur rocket launch. These helium-filled balloons will be used to lift a rocket on its launch platform to around 35,000 metres up. The rocket will then automatically launch, reaching a height of some 80 kilometres. This project is being done by JP Aerospace, an amateur rocketry organization which aims to place the first amateur object in orbit. Photographed in the Black Rock desert, Nevada, USA.
    USA_SCI_RCKT_11_nxs.jpg
  • Launching weather balloon with field mills into storm. Balloon is 1500 cubic feet surplus nylon with fins that is tethered and carries an electronic field meter. Langmuir Atmospheric Research Lab on Mt. Baldy, New Mexico (1992)
    USA_SCI_LIG_20_xs.jpg
  • Launching weather balloon with field mills into an approaching electrical lightning storm.. Langmuir Atmospheric Research Lab on Mt. Baldy, New Mexico (1992) Lightning occurs when a large electrical charge builds up in a cloud, probably due to the friction of water and ice particles. The charge induces an opposite charge on the ground, and a few leader electrons travel to the ground. When one makes contact, there is a huge backflow of energy up the path of the electron. This produces a bright flash of light, and temperatures of up to 30,000 degrees Celsius..
    USA_SCI_LIG_13_xs.jpg
  • Static electricity. A child plays with a plasma globe in a museum. A plasma globe is a large glass vessel, containing a gas at low pressure. A voltage of static electricity is applied between the metal sphere at centre and the glass. Static discharge across the gas causes its atoms to lose their electrons, a 'plasma' state. When the nuclei and their electrons recombine, they emit a characteristic color light. Placing an object against the glass, such as the child's hand, concentrates the local static charge and creates the beautiful 'streamer' effect seen here. Photographed at the Boston Museum of Science. MODEL RELEASED (1991)
    USA_SCI_LIG_12_xs.jpg
  • Boston Museum of Science electrostatic display operator, Don Salvatore, demonstrates the safety of a Faraday cage as he is protected from a 2.5-million-volt Van de Graaff static electricity generator. A Faraday cage is an earthed screen made of metal wire that surrounds an electric device in order to shield it from external electrical fields. Artificial lightning passes through the metal frame. Physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff invented this model in 1931. MODEL RELEASED (1992).
    USA_SCI_LIG_05_xs.jpg
  • Boston Museum of Science electrostatic display operator, Don Salvatore, demonstrates the safety of a Faraday cage as he is protected from a 2.5-million-volt Van de Graaff static electricity generator. A Faraday cage is an earthed screen made of metal wire that surrounds an electric device in order to shield it from external electrical fields. Artificial lightning passes through the metal frame. Physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff invented this model in 1931. MODEL RELEASED (1992)
    USA_SCI_LIG_03_xs.jpg
  • Bill Wysock in his backyard, in Monrovia (near Hollywood), California. Fiery sparks crackle from a metal tube as he also lights a 40-watt light bulb in his hands. He is sitting on a metal disk linked by a cable to his Tesla coil: a transformer producing high-frequency currents that pass safely over the surface of his body. Low-frequency currents would pass through it, meeting resistance and causing injury. MODEL RELEASED (1992)
    USA_SCI_LIG_10_xs.jpg
  • Van de Graaff generator display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Pamela Gross demonstrates static electricity. A Van de Graaff generator is an electrostatic generator used to produce a high voltage, usually in the megavolt range. Physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff invented it. The generator creates a negative charge of static electricity. When the boy touches the dome the charge passes from the dome (where it would otherwise be stored) on to his hands, and through to his hair. As the individual hairs become charged they repel each other, causing them to stand on end. (1991)
    USA_SCI_LIG_07_xs.jpg
  • Boston Museum of Science electrostatic display operator, Don Salvatore, demonstrates the safety of a Faraday cage as he is protected from a 2.5-million-volt Van de Graaff static electricity generator. A Faraday cage is an earthed screen made of metal wire that surrounds an electric device in order to shield it from external electrical fields. Artificial lightning passes through the metal frame. Physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff invented this model in 1931. MODEL RELEASED (1992)
    USA_SCI_LIG_06_xs.jpg
  • Launching weather balloon with field mills into an approaching electrical lightning storm. Langmuir Atmospheric Research Lab on Mt. Baldy, New Mexico (1992) Lightning occurs when a large electrical charge builds up in a cloud, probably due to the friction of water and ice particles. The charge induces an opposite charge on the ground, and a few leader electrons travel to the ground. When one makes contact, there is a huge backflow of energy up the path of the electron. This produces a bright flash of light, and temperatures of up to 30,000 degrees Celsius.
    USA_SCI_LIG_14_xs.jpg
  • Launching weather balloon with field mills into storm. Balloon is 1500 cubic feet surplus nylon with fins that is tethered and carries an electronic field meter. Langmuir Atmospheric Research Lab on Mt. Baldy, New Mexico (1992)
    USA_SCI_LIG_16_xs.jpg
  • Static electricity. Young boy holding the dome of a Van de Graaff generator, which makes his hair stand on end. The generator creates a negative charge of static electricity. When the boy touches the dome the charge passes from the dome (where it would otherwise be stored) on to his hands, and through to his hair. As the individual hairs become charged they repel each other, causing them to stand on end. Photographed at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, USA. MODEL RELEASED (1991)
    USA_SCI_LIG_09_xs.jpg
  • Boston Museum of Science electrostatic display operator, Don Salvatore, demonstrates the safety of a Faraday cage as he is protected from a 2.5-million-volt Van de Graaff static electricity generator. A Faraday cage is an earthed screen made of metal wire that surrounds an electric device in order to shield it from external electrical fields. Artificial lightning passes through the metal frame. Physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff invented the generator in 1931. (1992)
    USA_SCI_LIG_49_xs.jpg
  • An opal miner displays a handful of opals. Opal is a form of hydrous silicon oxide. The stones are conglomerates of microscopic spherical particles - opal is never found as a true crystal. The blue/green and dark blue forms seen here are considered to be precious. Opal has a beautiful colored luster due to the varied dispersion of light from its structure. Opal may also be seen in fossils, where it replaces the organic matter (especially bones) in buried remains. These stones were photographed at Lightning Ridge in Australia, the world's most important source of precious opal.  [1989].
    AUS_SCI_DINO_15_xs.jpg
  • Virtual reality: Michael McGreevy, PhD. in front of a pair of video images of the Valles Marineris of the planet Mars, computer-generated from data provided by the Viking spacecraft at NASA's Ames Research Centre, California. Sophisticated computers & sensors provide the user with a telepresence in the virtual world, through small video screens mounted in goggles on a headset, whilst a spherical joystick controls movement through the virtual landscape. One future Martian application of this system might be in gathering geological samples by remote control using a rover robot. A sensor in the geologist's headset could direct the robot at specific sample targets. Model Released (1990)
    USA_SCI_VR_35_xs.jpg
  • Virtual reality: Lewis Hitchner manipulates a pair of video images of the Valles Marineris of the planet Mars, computer-generated from data provided by the Viking spacecraft at NASA's Ames Research Centre, California. Sophisticated computers & sensors provide the user with a telepresence in the virtual world, through small video screens mounted in goggles on a headset, whilst a spherical joystick controls movement through the virtual landscape. One future Martian application of this system might be in gathering geological samples by remote control using a rover robot. A sensor in the geologist's headset could direct the robot at specific sample targets. Model Released (1990)
    USA_SCI_VR_17_xs.jpg
  • Coober Pedy Opal Mine, Southern Australia. Opal is a form of hydrous silicon oxide. The stones are conglomerates of microscopic spherical particles - opal is never found as a true crystal. The blue/green and dark blue forms seen here are considered to be precious. Opal has a beautiful colored luster due to the varied dispersion of light from its structure. Opal may also be seen in fossils, where it replaces the organic matter (especially bones) in buried remains. [1989]
    AUS_SCI_DINO_16_xs.jpg

Peter Menzel Photography

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