Sand grains magnified 110-250 times reveal each grain is unique.
The tip of a spiral shell has broken off and become a grain of sand. After being repeatedly tumbled by action of the surf this spiral sand grain has become opalescent in character. It is surrounded by bits of coral, a pink shell fragment, a foram (a type of protozoa) and volcanic material. Photo copyright Dr. Gary Greenberg.
A handful of sand grains selected from a beach in Maui and arranged on a black background. Photo copyright Dr. Gary Greenberg.
Every grain of sand in the world is unique when viewed through a microscope.
Sand magnified 250 times. Photo copyright Dr. Gary Greenberg.
Sand Magnified. Photo by Yanping Wang.
Sand magnified 250 times. Photo via Tumblr.
Sand Magnified Around The World
The glacially deposited sands around Lake Winnibigoshish, Minnesota, contain abundant sediments from the igneous and metamorphic minerals of the Lake Superior basin. A sample includes pink garnets, green epidote, iron-rich red agates, black magnetite, and hematite. Photo copyright Dr. Gary Greenberg.
Magnified grains of star sand from Southern Japan, made up of the calcified shells of tiny organisms. Photo by Richard Mouser Williams.
Beautiful Framed Seashell
Neat idea for decorating a beach house, or any space you want a splash of the sea. The frame is 14″x17″, and yes, it’s a real seashell. Sold by Art.com for $119.99.
Magnified grains of Star Sand. Photo by Richard Mouser Williams.
Puffy Stars: Star-Shaped Sand Grains from Okinawa. These tiny foram, a type of protozoa, secrete beautiful star-shaped, calcium carbonate shells, or tests. Photo via sandgrains.com.
Coral sand magnified one-hundred times using transmission electron microscopy, brightfield mode. By Dr. David Maitland, Feltwell, UK, microscopyu.com
Many grains of sand are tiny crystals (shiny, flat-sided solids). Sand from Zushi Beach, Japan, contains what looks like a sapphire crystal. The crystal is larger than the surrounding grains and has survived eroding because of its hardness and quality. Photo copyright Dr. Gary Greenberg.
Fragments of baby sea urchin shells, magnified one-hundred times. Biogenic sand, formed from the remains of marine life, is the major ingredient of many tropical beaches. Via popgive.com. Originally found at “popgive.com/2009/01/tiny-work-of-art-in-each-grain-of-sand.html”
A magnified view of the tropical beach sand from the Caribbean island of St. John (U.S. Virgin Islands). The grains include porous fragments of brightly-colored corals, minute foraminiferan shells, fragments of sea shells and shiny, star-shaped sponge spicules. Originally found at “waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0704b.htm”
Sand Photographer Dr. Gary Greenberg
Every grain of sand is a jewel waiting to be discovered. That’s what Dr. Gary Greenberg found when he first turned his microscope on beach sand. Gemlike minerals, colorful coral fragments, and delicate microscopic shells reveal that sand comprises much more than tiny beige rocks.
Author and photographer Dr. Gary Greenberg is a visual artist who creatively combines art with science. He has a Ph.D. in biomedical research from University College London and holds 17 patents for high-definition 3-D light microscopes. Dr. Greenberg lives in Haiku, Hawaii.
Dr. Greenberg has published two books:
- A Grain of Sand: Nature’s Secret Wonder
- The Secrets of Sand: A Journey into the Amazing Microscopic World of Sand
The Universe Of Sand
Carl Sagan famously remarked “the total number of stars in the universe is greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches on the planet Earth.” University of Hawai’i researches estimate that the total number of ‘all’ grains of sand on the whole planet could be approximately 75 billion billion. Scientists still believe there are more stars in the Universe.
Speaking of planets: If a grain of sand represented an entire galaxy; so each grain of sand, or galaxy, contains 100’s of billions of stars, you would need to fill six rooms full of sand to contain all the galaxies in the known universe. If you drilled a tiny hole in one of the grains of sand, ‘our Milky Way universe,’ that would be the area that we have been capable of seaching for planets so far. About 2000 planets have been discovered so far.
Loved it so much that I bought the book!
Absolutely amazing! What a sight to behold!
Thank you for sharing. This is so amazing and magnificent.
Amazing! In The Beginning God Created The Heavens And The Earth.
Think of how long the creative days were for these grains that we know as sand to be formed. No 24 hour time table here! Truly the work of a loving and magnificent creator.
I would have never believed it!
I had NO idea~~~amazing!
AMAZING!!
I had no idea sand was so diverse and colorful. Just to think some of the grains are as old as the earth when the seas formed.
Stunning and profound. I have often wondered what our senses limit us from perceiving or becoming aware of what is around us. Thank goodness for the microscope, the professor’s curiosity and readiness to share his findings with others.
Thank you. I would have never imagined!
WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THIS FOR COMPUTER WALLPAPER
WOW. would love to see the pink sand of Bermuda!
To look into our known world space from the atom to the outer reaches of our abilities to see I believe we are looking at God’s majesty revealed to us. The wonders of each individual unique atom and how it’s place in the make-up of the universe is the revelation of a Supreme Being who designed all of this wondrous creation. This is a beautiful example shown.
What a fantasitic artistic scientist, and I have to be thankfor to the friend who sent this on to me. It made my day!
I’m speechless!
Reminds me of archaeology field school lab: we had to sift soil from our site through smaller and smaller screens then examine each sample under microscopes… and count each type of material. Fascinating, beautiful, but not very good on the eyes neck or shoulders. Love these photos! Wish I’d had the higher resolution microscopes. WOW.
Perhaps the DNA for humans were in those grains of sand. When you look at a slide of a thin slice of a meteorite, you will see similar colors and shapes. Our DNA came from meteorites and we evolved into what we are today. In another million years we may evolve further and treat our place in this universe with the respect it deserves. This is Earth Day so start now to reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink, rennovate, revisit your habits and redo the way you live.
I will always give high respect to the One created all these Grain of Sand!! It is so beautifully created that I just do not stop admiring them!
These grain of sand reminds me that God is Awesome. He is very Creative. He is Perfect and He makes all things beautiful for us to admire, to be happy and thankful to Him! He is possible!
What beauty exists in the Universe.
I will view our beautiful Florida beaches with a greater appreciation!
AWESOME
When you momentarily stop and think how much that God loves us individually, just draw a simple comparison of the beauty of individual grains of sand and then imagine yourself walking off Ocean
Blvd and start counting the individual grains of sand and make your way down to the waters edge and notice that sand continues under the water; now look back over your shoulder, then back to the water, there’s a beginning but no ending to God’s Love For Us. PRAISE HIM…
I really love the pictures!,when you see this you
really get a sense of how small we are in this universe!!
I have a boom microscope with a camera and I am planning to do pics of similar objects,as well as flowers.
Our God is an awesome God!
Ive always said ‘God is the greatest artist’. This is more proof of His endless power. Thank you Father.
This is pretty amazing! Enjoy.
Not in my limited scientific knowledge did I have awareness of anything like grains of sand being any more than grains of sand! And the analogy extending the lesson of what lies behind each grain of sand to the universe, where some 5,000 planets lie in their galaxies is mind boggling!
It’s a pity Dr. Sagan is not with us to receive the full credit for his genius in educating an audience about how vast the universe is and how it dwarfs planet Earth.
I remember how a famous television late night host(Johnny Carson) belittled Sagan and his televised series on the universe and earth’s relationship to it……he was one of the first scientists (if not the first) to talk about climate change………..
Peter Lamprakos,Edison,N.J.
Absolutely beautiful
Wonderful photography.
How great Thou art !!
These are great photos.
Very interesting
In the infinite universe, each planet and star, including our habitat, the earth, is like a grain of sand, beautiful and wonderfully made.
Yet we trample on it mindlessly, most of the time. Let us not destroy our planet!
These are from the Great Goddess in her Aphrodite form, giving Beauty to us mere mortals! She who loves Beauty and adornment — what a wonderful surprise She has given us — how creative and generous — and what fun to have them hidden away like this.
I´ve collected sand many times wondering what I could find, its been hours searching but I know one day I’ll find treasures like these
gods and goddessess arent real. only the one and true God is DEFINETLY real. go to a christian book store and you will always find THE HOLY BIBLE. ok?
thank you who ever said how great thou art! i agree!
(even though im only 10) yep. its true. 😉
It just shows the magnificence and magnitude of the Great God of Heaven, who can be your Lord and Saviour!!
Hi,
I do a e-newsletter for the Sierra Club San Fernando Valley. I would like to show this video but I feel I need your permission. We don’t have the money to pay for it but our newsletter goes out to 3,400 addresses and it would be good publicity.
Hope to hear from you
Elaine Trogman
Unbelievably beautiful. I have a small collection of shells and I cherish them and gaze at them every now & then and it is so calming.
Miracle of God!
If you drilled a WHOLE in one’….dont’ you mean ‘a HOLE in one? Other than that this is a great presentation. thanks to all involved. anis Kelley
I will never look at sand the same way again!
All of God’s works are so wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing!
God is amazing… look what he can do!!! He made each and every one of us unique and special, just like He made that sand…
I am only 12 but i know that God is the one and only God, our Saviour! Respect His glory! Read the Holy BIble! You’ll be amazed.
Wow! What beauty! Look what comes from the glory of God. There is only one God, so come to believe and repect what he has done for us!
He has given everyone who believes in what eh has done for us everlasting and eternal life in heaven with him, for those who choose to believe!
God is Almighty! everyone should believe what he has done for us so that we too may expirience the joy of a perfect and eternal life with him!
im 11 years old and a strong believer in Christ! who cares about age!
Read the holy Bible (ESV is a great translation)… it is the Word of the one and only God, the only one that actualy exists!!!
Just thinking about all those trillions upon trillions upon trillions of grains of sand, each seperate and individual makes me feel so small and unimportant in this massive universe of unending wonder… and yet God loves each of us so much we can’t even imagine, each and every individual unimportant tiny little person…
thinking like that really baffles you, how could someone so amazing as God actually care about us? But he loves with all his heart…
I love the beach
Magnificent, exquisite, beauteous can only begin to
portray what has been under my feet. In awe, I draw slow breaths at what I could have never imagined.
Thank you for opening the small slits I have for these eighty years called eyes–they have seen nothing.
Humble respects to you and ‘nature.’
Glendon Lawrence Thomlison,
65619
What an awesome God to create such wonders for us to enjoy. Who ever thought we were walking on such beautiful and unique grains of sand. Thanks for sharing
I really enjoyed this,amazing photography. I live near the Beach in Fl and will now look at the sand differently.