image by C. J. Kazilek & The Paper Project

Fall 2007 MYSTERY IMAGE 

Some of you were pretty good with your guesses and some had some great creative answers. Yes, this is a magnified view of paper using a scanning electron microscope. This is not just any paper, this is paper made from silk fibers. You may know that most paper is made from plants, like trees, and is a cellulose material. Cellulose is the stuff that plant cell walls are made of. Silk is not cellulose, but instead made from proteins. To us, it almost looks like a lot of string cheese, and maybe that was your guess too. By the way, can you name some animals that make silk?

If you want to see more cool paper images, visit the Paper Project.

If you are curious, here are some numbers from our list of guesses. 

• 47% thought it was some type of paper
• 32% thought it was a piece of cloth (close - since some paper is made from cloth)
• 11% thought is was a rope or string

This was particularly good image for creative answers. Some of these answers are listed below. 

• A fiber from an onion skin
• String cheese - the stuff you peal and eat
• Tendon sheath
• Hair locks
• This image has got to be a stringy beef sirloin
• Wet paper towel
• A piece of cloth