Kidney Kaleidoscope

This image represents the beauty and complexity of science, giving just a glimpse into the intricacies of the human body. Kidney stones are common, occurring in roughly 1 in 11 individuals, and are renowned for their excruciating pain and high costs to the healthcare industry. Each is a unique geologic record of development and dissolution, change and stability, art and science. Kidneys are responsible for ridding waste products from the body by making urine. Sometimes, minerals aggregate inside the kidney, making a stone and blocking urine flow. The exact mechanism of kidney stone growth is still unknown. The multidisciplinary approach based on analysis of images like these gives information on crystallization patterns, allowing for a creation of a minute to minute record of stone development. This information has the potential to be applied to other mineralization pathologies in the body, such as gallstones, osteoarthritis and cholesterol plaques on blood vessels.Ope