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‘Mini-Monsters’ app infests iPads with bug close-ups

Insects, spiders and other tiny monsters that scurry across floors or fly through the air are frightening enough. Under an electron microscope, however, they balloon into terrifying yet beautiful spectacles.

For a few bucks iPad owners can zoom in on such nightmarish electron-powered portraits using a paid application called “Mini-Monsters.”

Each of the app’s 567 images of more than 200 unique species is zoomable and comes equipped with a caption. The detailed information covers everything from the monsters’ eating habits to favorite hiding spots.

Science Photo Library, a science-centric stock imagery company that hosts some 300,000 images and 20,000 videos, says Mini Monsters will cost $2.99 in the U.S.

“We supply these images mostly to publications and advertisers, but wanted to get them out to the public in another way,” said Gary Evans, who helped launch the app as the manager of scientific relations at Science Photo Library. “The first person I’m going to show this to is my grandson.”

Three sets of contributors (Steve Gschmeissner, Cheryl Power and Andrew Syred, and Oliver Meckes and Nicole Ottawa) created images for the app using their own scanning electron microscopes, which are hundreds of times more powerful than optical microscopes.

Bed bugs named Time magazine’s most ‘evil animal’

Time magazine recently listed the Top 10 “Evil Animals” and many pest management professionals will agree with their choice for No. 1: bed bugs. The Time article noted that infestations have been reported in all 50 states, and in the latter part of 2010, they were at nearly epidemic proportions in New York City and other metropolises.

In explaining the “evilness” of bed bugs the article noted that “despite their small size, their anatomy is custom-built for bloodsucking. The apple seed-sized insect can drink more than three times its body weight in blood in a single feeding.

Insect-flavored coffee?

Starbucks recently began using cochineal extract to supply its Frappuccinos’ strawberry hue. Starbucks said in a statement that the move was “intended to reduce its use of artificial ingredients.”

Cochineal extract is derived from grind-ing up insects, the dried bodies of cochineal bugs, found primarily in Mexico and South America. Cochineal dye has been used as a coloring agent since the 15th century.

The University of Florida Pest Alert noted that at one time cochineal was used in many items we wore and even ate. Then big corporations decided it was cheaper to use artificial ingredients instead. Now the trend is the “other” way, as cochineal profits from its appeal as a “natural” ingredient.

The best part is that the reuse of this material is not only more healthy (for most of us), but also helps the economy of numerous second- and third-world countries.