Let’s face it. It’s easy to forget how big the world actually is; to marvel at the sheer enormity of it – at the macro and micro level. Sometimes we need a few reminders so we do not completely lose our sense of wonder. Thankfully, we live in pretty awesome times, when seemingly ordinary objects acquire a whole new meaning when seen through the eyes of a powerful microscope. Here are 20 beautiful and bizarre images of things seen under a microscope, guaranteed to melt your mind.
1 Head of a Romanesco cauliflower.
These beautiful Italian cauliflowers are rather delicious-looking, but when magnified a godzillion times…
This is an image of eyelashes growing from the surface of human skin, magnified about 50 times. Since eyelashes are constantly exposed to the atmosphere, dust and skin flakes more readily settle inside the rim where the hair follicles emerge from the skin. (1,2)
Fimbriae are bunches of tissue at the end of the fallopian tubes in the female reproductive system. When ovulation occurs, these tissues swell up with blood and gently hit the ovaries to help release the egg. (1,2)
…literally, when you realize they actually look like this. Lice grab onto hair strands and lay their eggs (also called nits) close to the scalp. These eggs are glued to the hair and can only be treated with chemicals since they are mostly water-resistant. (source)
For the most part, mosquitoes are nothing more than an annoyance but remember the next time one lands on you that this is what they look like up close. This is a mosquito’s head, magnified 160 times. (source)
