XTAL ENTERPRISES

Welcome to XTALENT

This site is a launchpad for a number of diverse passions I now pursue in my spare time. Have a quick look around at what there is on offer.

Virtual Walkabouts – virtually go on nature walks to beautiful natural places.
Half the fun of going somewhere is the actual journey involved in getting there!
Being disabled or infirm should not preclude you from enjoying some of Australia’s most beautiful nature walks.
A unique experience; no effort required and no other people on the track to spoil the experience. Better still exercise as best you can using the virtual track before you as motivation.
The 2006 Walkabout Series have unique seismic didjeridu soundtracks performed by Tjupurru.

Images – An extensive image gallery of things microscopic and macroscopic – See things beyond your wildest imagination and interact with other registered gallery users. Images may also be used free of charge for non-profit purposes, especially the education of young minds.

webEM – I spent many years in the Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis Community specialising in live interactive Remote Access Scanning Electron Microscopy.
I have since developed Six Virtual Electron Microscopy Explorations to allow people to go on similar fantastic voyages of discovery using their favourite web browser.
I hope you enjoy and discover much!

The Wizard’s Crystal Game – This True Colours Game will hopefully become a much loved and treasured game around the world.
Make one for yourself for FREE or purchase one of the limited edition collector games.
The latest incarnation is a Virtual World Experience being developed on a firewalled OpenSimulator Enterprise Strategy Grid.

Virtual Walkabouts

Get away from it all!

The environmentally friendly way to experience some of the World’s most beautiful nature trails.

These multimedia artworks recreate nature walks for viewers as streaming slideshows, featuring hundreds of photographs, accompanied by the wonderful melodies and ongoing urging sound of the didjeribone (slide didjeridu) and Face Bass performed by Tjupurru.

Note: Didjeridu is sometimes spelt didgeridoo, didjeridoo and didgeridu, but the Australian government and all its agencies have formally accepted didjeridu as the correct spelling.

The collection so far visually documents walking tracks in selected Australian National Parks and Nature Reserves, including many amazing walks through World Heritage areas. Often narrow trails traverse very sensitive and fragile areas. Viewers are strongly discouraged from physically visiting these off-the-beaten-track areas themselves, thereby exerting further pressure on them.

Hopefully many folk will be satisfied with an environmentally friendly Virtual Walkabout, especially one free of sunburn, rain, annoying flies, biting midges, blood-sucking leeches, parasitic ticks, poisonous snakes and spiders and stinging trees. I had all that fun!

A Virtual Walkabout is an experience that both the ‘in form’ and infirm can enjoy in a number of ways

$Bunya Mountains National Park The 30 million year old lava domes of an extinct shield volcano in Queensland provide cool refuge for the largest stand of ancient cone-bearing Araucarias in the world today. More than nine different types of rainforest exist in this extremely biodiverse sanctuary, interspersed with open forests, woodlands and hundreds of \'balds\', or pockets of open native grasslands. Once food for dinosaurs, the large pine-apple shaped fleshy bunya pine cones contain edible \'nuts\' that were the focus of traditional aboriginal festivals. Custodians from Queensland and New South Wales would regularly gather for ceremonies, to make laws, resolve disputes, trade and feast. Step back in time from the Dandabah camping ground and enter the \'fridge\' that exists atop the Bunya Mountains (Booburrgan Ngmmun) due to the tall closed canopy of ancient rainforest on the eastern slopes. Penetrate the barrier of prickly shrubs, vines and stinging trees to discover dark forests pierced by stabbing rays of light. 1199 Images | 102 Minutes$

$Byron Bay Nature Reserves Discover spectacular nature reserves around beautiful Byron Bay in northern New South Wales. Begin with a golden sunrise at Tyagarah Beach, just north of Byron. Then explore the Cape Byron Headland Reserve, starting from Captain Cook\'s Lookout with its majestic views of Byron Bay and Mount Warning. Follow the Cape Byron Walking Track to famous landmarks like The Pass, Palm Valley, Julian Rocks, Wategos Beach, Little Wategos Lookout, the Byron Bay Lighthouse and the lookout at the most easterly point of the Australian mainland. The magnificent clifftop track offers stunning coastal views. Return to Cook\'s Lookout through coast banksia woodlands via the scenic ridge track above Tallow Beach. Then discover Broken Head Nature Reserve with its subtropical rainforest, rugged headlands, rocky coves and spectacular sandy beaches. See Two Sisters Rock, Kings Beach, The Razorback, Brays Beach and Whites Beach on an extraordinary trail that offers panoramic views north to Byron and south to Lennox Head. 501 images | 43 Minutes$

$Carnarvon Gorge (Preview Only!) Virtually walk every track, occasionally probing delicately beyond formed trails, to explore the jewel of Carnarvon National Park, the spectacular Carnarvon Gorge. Enjoy sweeping views from 200 metres above Carnarvon Creek at Boolimba Bluff. Discover the spring fed emerald waters of the Fairy Pools in Hellhole Gorge. Delight in the constantly dripping sheltered walls of the Moss Gardens in Violet Gorge and its beautiful waterfall fed rock pool. Follow a carpet of red stones in flowing spring waters to meet royalty in Ward\'s Canyon - the extremely rare and majestic King Ferns. Marvel at the Art Gallery, a major Aboriginal rock art site with its ancient stencils, paintings and carvings. Big Bend\'s camping area and reflective pool refresh you for a stroll through the sinuous Boowinda Gorge with its iridescent green hued moss covered walls. Rest a while at Cathedral Cave, one of the largest decorated shelters in Central Queensland, which aborigines inhabited for more than 3500 years. 1128 Images | 112 Minutes$

$Carnarvon National Park - Mt Moffatt, Ka Ka Mundi and Salvator Rosa Sections Explore the more remote sections of Carnarvon National Park - Mt Moffatt, Ka Ka Mundi and Salvator Rosa. Mt Moffatt Section - Discover extraordinary outcrops of stone on the picturesque Circuit Track - The Chimneys, The Duchess, The Tombs and Cathedral Rock all rise abruptly from sandy surrounds. Travel up through Mahogany Forest (Mythical Origin of the Milky Way) to stand at the Head of Carnarvon Creek. Enjoy sweeping views over the Consuelo Tablelands before returning to the lowlands to be greeted by Emus on Marlong Plain, unique Aboriginal artwork at Kookaburra Cave and the amazing Marlong Arch and Lot\'s Wife. All campsites are briefly checked too. Ka Ka Mundi - Beautiful Bunbuncundoo Spring offers lush growths of mosses and ferns for the tiny birds and frogs that abound. Go walkabout above the bush campsite to view dry sandy creekbeds full of wildflowers, the solitary and mysterious Mt Mooloolong, and the countless coloured escarpments of this wonderfully austere place. 945 Images | 97 Minutes$

$Lamington National Park - Dave\'s Creek Circuit Dave\'s Creek Track (6 km) branches off the Ships Stern Track near Nagarigoon clearing in Nixon\'s Creek Valley and passes through a diverse range of vegetation types including mallee and montane heath. See Neubani Rocks and enjoy spectacular panoramic views from the top of Surprise Rock. View the beautiful Numinbah Valley from the Numinbah Lookout then follow the ridge to discover wildflowers, wildlife and glimpses of Numinbah and Woggunba Valleys. Cross the little bridge over tiny Picnic Creek and wind your way to Molongolee cave and lookout with its wonderful views of the picturesque countryside and rocky valley below. Turn back toward the head of Nixon\'s Creek Valley and plunge once again into tall forest before returning to the junction with the Ships Stern Track. 313 images | 27 Minutes$

$Kondalilla and Mapleton Falls National Parks Kondalilla Part of the traditional lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people, Kondalilla has special significance to Aboriginal people as communities would gather here for the traditional Aboriginal Bunya nut festivals every three years. The spectacular Kondalilla Falls takes its name from the Aboriginal word meaning \'rushing waters\'. From tall open Eucalypt forest, the falls drop 80 metres into the lush subtropical rainforest valley below. Wind your way through picturesque forests of bunya pines,piccabeen palms and pink ash to stand at the pool and head of the falls. Descend through dense rainforest to the base of the towering falls then return to the top again via the circuit track as Wompoo fruit-doves watch from high in the trees above. Mapleton Falls The spectacular Mapleton Falls drops abruptly out of sight into thick rainforest and remains elusively out of reach. However, the Wompoo Circuit offers a wonderfully wet winding journey through rainforest and Eucalypt forests to reach Peregrine Lookout, with its stunning view of Obi Obi Valley, before returning to the carpark. 237 images | 26 Minutes$

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Scale and Magnification

**An Australian 20 cent piece magnified 20 million times would cover S.E. Queensland!**

**An Australian 20 cent piece magnified 400 million times would have the same diameter as planet earth!**

Bacteria on the head of a pin

The subject is a pin with bacteria on it. Progressively the magnification increases to the point that resolution is exceeded with Scanning Electron Microscopes and we shift to the higher resolution of Transmission Electron Microscopes. We increase in magnification until we resolve columns of atoms in various crystal planes in the magnetosome of a magnetotactic bacteria.

Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) of the head of a metal pin.
Magnification **x 33**.

*Transmission Electron Micrograph (TEM)*

Virtual Microscopy

Discover webEM !

A web portal for the Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis Community to further promote recent advances in microscopy and nanotechnology, especially live interactive Remote Access Microscopy. Go on a fantastic voyage of discovery from the comfort of your own home, schoolroom, research station or boardroom, using only your favourite web browser.

A large number of individual images of a number of unique specimens have been linked in web browser based Scanning Electron Microscopy explorations.

Select one of the images below to begin an exploration, or click on the relevant link to the left in the NAV MENU.

XTALENT Image Gallery

An extensive image gallery of things microscopic and macroscopic

As a keen photographer of things macroscopic, I include a large portion of my growing personal collection. Many of my images, both microscopic and macroscopic, are used by artists as inspiration and this is something I encourage.

A sample of images to be found in the XTALENT Image Gallery. Explore further !!

Naturally some categories in the parent XTALENT Image Gallery have restricted access but hopefully you will find enough to delight your senses.

If you register, you have access to many other features which allow you to interact with the gallery and other members.

Dig deep! I trust you will be inspired and enlightened by what you uncover.

THE NANOWORLD IMAGE GALLERY

The Nanoworld Image Gallery that I started nearly 20 years ago for The Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis (The University of Queensland) is now being hosted here as a Special Gallery within the XTALENT Image Gallery.

A sample of images to be found in the Nanoworld Image Gallery. Explore further !!

APPROVED IMAGE USE

The copying of images, and their subsequent FREE use, is permitted subject to the following conditions:

use is strictly not-for-profit use
the source of the image(s) must be clearly indicated
user is a Registered XTALENT Image Gallery Member
if used on a web page then a link to the XTALENT Image Gallery must be provided

Many images in the XTALENT Image Gallery are available for non-exclusive commercial use, subject to the following conditions:

licensee is a Registered XTALENT Image Gallery Member
that the source of the image(s) is clearly indicated in the commercial publication
and that a licensing fee per image used MUST be paid to XTAL ENTERPRISES BEFORE publication

LICENSE FEES

License fees vary depending on the nature of the image required and are strictly for non-exclusive use. Severe penalties exist for non-licensed commercial use of XTALENT Image Gallery images.

Specialist Electron Micrographs in the gallery attract a license fee of AUS$100 (exc. 10% GST) per publication.

Most modern electron microscopes capture images digitally with framegrabbers with resolutions far less than that provided by conventional film. Consequently most images captured in this manner can only be printed at a maximum of A4 size (297 x 210 mm) or Letter size (11 x 8.5 in).

Some images in the XTALENT collection come from archive negatives and if these are still accessible, a new image may be rescanned at higher resolution, but this will attract an additional fee of AUS$50 per image. Images with archive film negatives are noted in their descriptions.

All non-specialist images attract a license fee of AUS$80 (exc. 10% GST) per publication.

All non-specialist images may be printed at a maximum of A4 size (297 x 210 mm) or Letter size (11 x 8.5 in).

Please Note that many images in the collection are digitally watermarked using DigiMarc Technology in order to protect copyright. This watermarking may give the appearance of reduced image quality.