Morphologic friend and colleague Akihiro Shiroza recently returned from a stint at sea aboard a NOAA research vessel. He spent several weeks floating amidst the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico studying the effects of the spill on the pelagic plankton community. As an accomplished artist and videographer, NOAA asked Aki to formally document their work on video. This allowed him unprecedented access to capture film of the rainbow-hued sheen of oil that coats the surface of the Gulf. ‘Resonance of Contrary Components’ is at once disconcerting and sublime.

This year’s record 16 named-storm paths. Thanks to NOAA for the image.

Check this video as well.

Our good friend Akihiro Shiroza, a marine biologist at NOAA here in Miami, spends most of his working hours looking at the planktonic larvae of fish, corals, crustaceans, etc., under microscope. He was kind enough to share photos of some of the cool plankton he encounters. It appears here that he discovered a squid vs. shrimp battle of micro-mythological proportions. He used a polarizing filter to get the cool rainbow background effect. We’ll look forward to more of Aki’s photographic finds here in the future.