The strangest sights in the universe could be right in front of you — if you could only see at a small enough scale. The microscopic universe is full of beautiful and terrifying sights, including monsters and treasures. Check out some of the greatest microscopy images of all time.
Top image: A wood ant holding a microchip in its mandibles, via DSLRimagery.
Butterfly eggs on a raspberry plant
(via DSLRimagery)
A micro-crack in steel
(via imgur)
Household dust
With cat fur, long hair, twisted synthetic and woolen fibres, a pollen grain and insect remains.
(via DSLRimagery)
Needle and thread
(via Reddit/scott4316)
E.coli bacteria on lettuce
(via AgriLife Today)
Beard hairs under a scanning electron microscope: cut with razor (left) and electric shaver (right)
(via Reddit/schematicboy)
A moth wing
(via Reddit/Dahaka11)
Head of an embryonic Zebrafish with 500x magnification
(via FEI Company)
This picture shows the aftermath of fayalite reacting with gaseous CO2 to form siderite, thereby capturing the CO2 in a solid, stable form.
(via Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
A piece of dentine with dentinal tubules from human tooth, after demineralization using etching with 37% phosphoric acid for 15 seconds and 10% sodium hypochlorite for 1 minute.
(via FEI Company)
Shark skin (left) and a foot of a fly (right)
(via Reddit/ImNotjesus and EurekAlert)
The head of a maggot of a bluebottle fly
(via Imgur)
A high-chromium, nickel-based alloy
Its surface was chemically etched to reveal faceted crystallographic planes at regions of localized microstructural damage.
(via Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
A mite, magnified about 850x
(via Wikimedia Commons)
Leaf of a Virginia spiderwort
(via Micropix/Wikimedia Commons)
The green chloropasts in the plant cells
(via BASF)
Marijuana
(via Imgur)
Spherical spores produced by the fungus Emericella nidulans are coated in a thin layer of the protein hydrophobic. Hydrophobin ensures that water rolls off the spores.
(via BASF)
A bacterium living on the diatom of an amphipod
(via Reddit/Snearky)
Leg of a Gecko
(via Reddit/soupyhands)
A Marine Worm, 58x magnification
(via fStoppers)
Steel
(via sofarfromcaring)
A bud of a sand dollar (or sea cookie) with 4348x magnification
(via monkey.grip)
Abdomen of a mosquito
(via Matt the monkey)