Electroforming - comparisons between science and nature

I was fascinated by these amazing images I discovered from a recent physics study in Russia.  The technique of electroforming is the same that I use in developing my ‘Encrsutations’ collection.  Electrofroming deposits a thin uniform layer of metals onto a surface to create complex forms.

These images show ‘bouquets’ of palladium-nickel alloy that are taken under a scanning electron microscope as a standard microscope would not be able to detect this detail, they are 40 millionth of a metre across – narrower that a human hair!

They can be compared to natural biological formations such as flowers, bones, feathers of which are similar in that they are built from single cells and in that same way these ‘forests’ are grown from single pieces of metal.