Image of the Month: Cricket – January 2014
Good Luck for the New Year!
Figure 1. Projection image of a cricket with 3X offset for extra wide scanning.
Welcome to 2015! As our New Year’s resolution we are recycling… well sort of. This cricket met his demise in our recycling bin so we recycled it for scanning! We all need a year of good luck and hopefully finding this cricket is good luck for Micro Photonics and all our customers.
So what is the story behind a cricket bringing good luck? It begins in China dating back to the Chun Qui period (770 to 476 B.C.) where people would keep crickets as symbols of good luck. It is said that in the fall, women of the emperor’s palace would catch crickets in golden cages and put them near their bed to listen to the chirps.
In the Song Dynasty (960-1278 A.D.) crickets were used in recreational fighting. Every year thousands of crickets were sent to fight at the capital and bets were placed. This was a common practice for the upper-class to show their wealth. The death of a cricket normally meant bad luck as many people would lose their families fortune on bets. Eventually, cricket fighting was regulated during the Qing dynasty and later official prohibited.
Whether you believe a cricket brings good luck or not, we hope this New Year brings much prosperity to everyone.
Sources
- http://www.insects.org/ced3/chinese_crcul.html
Scan Specifications:
System
SkyScan 1273 Micro-CT
Voltage
50kV
Current
200µA
Pixel Size
12.9um
Rotation Step:
0.25
Scan Time
02:43:10
Software
NRecon, DataViewer, CTvox
Location
Micro Photonics Imaging Laboratory, Allentown, PA
Courtesy of
Brandon Walters, Micro Photonics, Laboratory Manager