As technology advances, it seems that we’re able to see things closer and closer. Sometimes it doesn’t even take a high tech camera. We can just spot small, fascinating things with our own eyes!
The devil’s in the details, as they say. Except this time it isn’t the devil, it’s actually kind of the opposite, because this stuff is cool!
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Velcro.
Looking at this, I now understand why velcro gets so frayed with lots of use. We’re destroying it with every fasten!
A chameleon.
This really does look like someone made artwork out of candy. With how vibrant those colors are and how neat of a texture they have, chameleons are fascinating creatures!
Salt and pepper.
I’m a big fan of the order vs. chaos motif here. Salt in its almost-perfect cubes, pepper in haphazard shreds. Perfect balance, yin and yang.
An elephant’s tail.
This is much…grosser than I thought it would be. It just looks so dry and coarse, which I guess makes sense given that they live in super-hot areas.
This bottle of Flex Glue that ripped open, then fixed itself.
Now this is advertising. Shows you the capabilities right there. They should use this as a marketing tactic.
A llama’s eye.
Goats, horses, camels, and other similar animals also share the sideways pupil thing, however they don’t all have that ruffled formation. Those are called iridic granules , and are thought to shade the eyes from harsh light!
This spider web that’s capable of holding water.
This doesn’t seem to be a habit of any particular species of spider, it’s really just a show of the strength and complexity of spiderwebs. Also, maybe he just wanted to build himself a pool.
A lightning storm captured by a plane’s passenger.
The fact that someone was able to take this photo at all instead of panicking because they’re in the middle of such a crazy storm is beyond my level of comprehension.
A cat’s tongue.
I know it’s no surprise that a cat’s tongue is rough, but this close up makes it look so much more than just “rough.” That looks dangerous.
The back of the Six Flags sign in New Orleans that’s still saying it’s closed for the storm.
A relic from Hurricane Katrina, those letters haven’t been swapped out in about 15 years now! I guess it’s still true, too. They did close because of the storm.
After a long day’s work, the surface of this shovel looks like a painting.
I swear I’ve seen art almost exactly like this in museums. There’s an evident landscape here, a forest scene, trees on the left, lake on the right, rocks in the foreground…
A strand of hair tied in a knot.
In case you ever need to be reminded of how strong your hair is, this is a good visualization. So is the fact that a single strand can hold 100 grams (3 ounces), and a head-full could support about 12 metric tons.
A gecko’s foot.
Seeing how often geckos are sideways and upside down, it shouldn’t be too shocking that their feet have built-in grips like that. It’s still very cool, though.
Lighter being lit.
This is surprisingly gorgeous. I guess it makes sense that sparks look like mini fireworks. It’s probably a lot of the same science! I think… I’m no explosion expert.
Just a butterfly, and all its tiny feathers.
Well, they’re not really feathers. They’re closer to a hair/spine/scale hybrid that a few different types of bugs sport. I couldn’t find what purpose they actually serve, but it does make them look soft!
The surface of Jupiter.
This photo was taken by the Juno space probe, whose whole mission is about exploring Jupiter. Thanks to Juno, NASA has gotten their best looks yet at Jupiter’s atmosphere, water content, and storms!
A sunflower.
Flowers in flowers! No, really! Called a composite flower , of which the sunflower is one, the head of the plant is composed of hundreds of these, which are the actual flower. Next time you look at a sunflower, look at the ring around the seeds. That’s where you’ll find these little guys!
A beetle and its hitchhiker.
If you look very closely on the left side of this Spring Dor Beetle, you’ll see a little friend along for the ride. Well, not really a friend. It’s a tick, but the beetle doesn’t have to know that.
The face of an ant.
I always knew I had a reason not to trust ants. From any distance they look like evil, shifty characters.
Shark skin.
These are called “dermal denticles” , which is why if you were to rub a shark (or ray, who also has these) the wrong way, it’d feel extremely rough. Sharkskin was used as sandpaper in many cultures, and is still used today by sushi chefs to grate wasabi!
Ladybug covered in dew.
While one would think this happened while the ladybug was sleeping, it actually…well, didn’t. Ladybugs don’t really “sleep” in the conventional sense so much as they enter a resting period . Regardless, it was a long resting period!
A crack in steel.
So close it looks like a canyon! It’s a good representation of how micro a “microcrack” in steel equipment can be.
A good look at a flying fish.
I’m going to be honest: When I was a kid I thought flying fish weren’t real. Good to know they actually are, and they really look magnificent! No wonder they can soar, with fins like that.
Butterfly’s wing.
This scale-like construction is made out of chitin , a very strong biological material! Every butterfly and moth wing holds thousands of these, weaving together to form the full thing!
Thread through a needle.
No wonder I have such a hard time threading! It’s so much messier than it looks to the human eye! I’m definitely going to blame this and not my own lack of fine motor skills.
Tadpoles in their eggs.
These little guys look to be in the latter half of their growth cycle while in their eggs. Soon they’ll be out and swimming around your local ponds!
Various snowflakes.
I know we all learned the whole “every snowflake is unique” thing in high school, but seeing them up close is still magnificent. They’re natural works of art, and stunning ones at that!
Water coming out of the tap.
Some sinks release a lot of rapid water droplets that look like one solid flow from a distance, I guess? Or this is just the movement of water making it look that way. It’s still very cool, though.
A bee covered in pollen.
Thank a pollinator today! Whether it be a bee, butterfly, ant, bird, or bat! Without the work these creatures do, nearly every ecosystem would collapse , so it’s about more than just the fruit in our produce aisles.
Strawberry ‘seeds’.
A Reddit user in the comments went into detail about how the “seeds” on a strawberry aren’t what we think they are: “What most people call seeds on the outside of the strawberry fruit are actually the true fruits. Technically, they are achenes. In an achene, the single seed is enclosed by the ovary wall.”
The human eye from a different angle.
This looks like the cover of a lot of YA novels from when I was a teen. This story would be about a young girl discovering she has magical powers bound to the forest which she must use to defeat evil.
Peacock feathers.
Did you know that peacock feathers are actually brown? The color you see is due to the structure of the surface of the feather rather than the actual pigment. It’s a phenomenon called structural coloration .
This poor wasp.
If you couldn’t tell where this is, that’s a train track. This wasp got rolled over by a train so hard it looks like it became part of the metal itself. Its memory will live on on the internet forever.
“White” hairs.
That’s right, “white” hairs are actually transparent! It’s the same on polar bears as it is on humans. In fact, it’s the same for many substances we consider “white,” like salt and snow.
A cat’s eyes when it sees its prey.
I got a cat recently. That second look now triggers a fear response in me. This cat is about to bolt .
