There’s something magical about zooming all the way in. Microscopes turn the mundane into the mesmerizing. Sugar becomes crystals, bugs turn into aliens, and fabrics look like cursed landscapes.
People online are sharing the most unexpectedly beautiful (and sometimes creepy) things they’ve seen under a microscope, and it’s giving big “science is wild” energy. It’s like nature’s hidden Pinterest board.
Scroll on for a close-up look at everyday things you’ll never see the same way again.
1. “Peacock Feather Shows The Full Spectrum Under A Microscope”
2. “This Amoeba I Saw Through The Microscope”
3. “Swallowtail Butterfly Wing Scales Up Close”
4. “Looked At My Hair Under A Microscope And My Gray Hair Is Actually Clear”
5. “I Balanced A Grain Of Sugar On 3 Strands Of My Hair That I Loosely Braided”
6. “A Single Pollen Grain On Saffron. Looks Like A Micro Sunset”
7. “The Micro-Art Of Mykola Syadristy – A Camel Train In The Eye Of A Needle (Under Microscope)”
8. “Snow Flakes Highly Magnified By A Low-Temperature Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)”
“The colors are called ‘pseudo colours’; they are computer-generated and are a standard technique used with SEM images.”
9. “It Was Pretty Cool Seeing My Own Chromosomes. Spent A Good Amount Of Time Looking Through A Microscope During Undergrad Research. Thought I Would Share One Of The ‘Woah’ Moments”
10. “Caffeine Crystals Under Polarized Light At 200x”
11. “Red Crayon On Paper Under A 400x Microscope”
12. “New Ballpoint Pen Under The Microscope”
13. “Uric Acid Crystals Of Urine Sample Seen Through A Microscope”
14. “Some Pictures Of Salt Under Microscope”
15. “My Friend Looked At His Microscope The Exact Second This Water Flea Was Having 6 Babies”
16. “Onion Layers Under Microscope”
17. “This Is What A Cross Section Of A Pine Tree Needle Looks Like (Photo Taken Through My Microscope)”
18. “Piece Of Paper Cut With Scissors vs. Torn Piece Of Paper Under A Microscope”
19. “Crack In A Smartphone Display Under The Microscope”
20. “Salt And Pepper Up Close”
21. “Pollen From A Variety Of Common Plants (Original And Retouched Picture, Coloring Is Speculative And May Differ Significantly From The Real Colors)”
“Sunflower (Helianthus annuus, small spiky sphericals, colorized pink), morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea, big sphericals with hexagonal cavities, colorized mint green), hollyhock (Sildalcea malviflora, big spiky sphericals, colorized yellow), lily (Lilium auratum, bean shaped, colorized dark green), primrose (Oenothera fruticosa, tripod shaped, colorized red) and castor bean (Ricinus communis, small smooth sphericals, colorized light green). The image is magnified some x500, so the bean-shaped grain in the bottom left corner is about 50 μm long.”
22. “Ghostly Tendrils Of Mold Rise Up From The Microscopic Hills And Valleys Of An Over-Ripe Strawberry. Who Knew Mold Could Be So Strangely Beautiful Up Close”
23. “My (Human) Hair Splitting”
24. “Human Bone Under A Microscope!”
25. “Insane Picture Of Ice (Through A Microscope)”
26. “0.07mm Mechanical Pencil Graphite Under An Electron Microscope (Colors Added For Visibility)”
27. “Toothbrush Bristles With Toothpaste On Them”
28. “An Image Of Starfish Feet Taken Using Secondary Electrons. Did You Know That There Are ~2000 Known Species Of Sea Star?”
29. “Cardiac Muscle Under A Microscope Looks Like A Planet”
30. “Head Of A Flea At 400x Magnification”
31. “Surface Of A Strawberry With Strawberry Seeds Seen Through An Electron Microscope”
32. “Ant Head – Electron Microscope Image”
33. “What A Leaf Looks Like In A Microscope”
34. “Found A Microscopic Bug While Looking At Red Onion Cells!”
35. “What A Potato Looks Like Under A Microscope”
36. “A Fly Wing Under The Microscope”
37. “Microplastics In Bread”
38. “Vinyl Grooves Under Magnification”
39. “Some Sem Pics. Proud Of These”
“In order:
acoustic guitar g string: 139x/834x;
diatom: 2,085x/5,560x;
paramecium: 1,112x/5,560x;
human baby tooth: 1,112x/2,085x.”