Do you remember in sixth grade how they probably made you cut up onion skins and stuff and made you look at them under a microscope? That was really cool, right? I miss those good old days of school.
I always wished we could have looked at more things like that, maybe spent the entire science program learning about what things look like up close. Of course, I was just a child though, so when I expressed my strong feelings about this, nobody listened.
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But it turns out there are people who do that for their jobs or have the means to do it for fun, and they are kind enough to share their findings with the world.
Let us know which one was your favorite in the COMMENTS and SHARE with your scientifically inclined friends.
1. Chalk.
Sidewalk chalk and blackboard chalk used to be made from soft limestone!
2. Caffeine.
Can you believe this? I knew this is what it felt like, but to look like it as well? Amazing.
3. Dust.
I knew there was a reason I never did housework. Look how pretty the dust is!
4. Seawater.
Yup, exactly what I pictured.
5. A butterfly tongue.
I’m not sure what exactly I thought a butterfly tongue would look like, but this is pretty close.
6. A peacock feather.
Sort of looks like shiny rope.
7. The inside of a green onion.
This makes me feel like I’m in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!
8. A hypodermic needle with blood.
The blood cells look so creepy.
9. Sand.
It’s so beautiful! Who knew something so irritating could be so majestic?
10. A crack in rusted steel.
Looks like the Grand Canyon.
11. Human eye!
All I can say is yuck!
12. A bee covered in pollen.
I always thought bees were cute.
13. Butterfly wing.
They seem almost scaly!
14. Velcro.
This makes a lot of sense to look at.
15. Paper
More specifically, this is the edge of a piece of paper as magnified 100 times under an electron microscope.
Considering how surprisingly jagged it looks, it’s not such a surprise that we get paper cuts.
16. Lilac
It may seem a little more transparent than we’re used to, but it looks as colorful up close as it does with the naked eye.
17. Heart Muscle Sample
We may have a pretty good idea as to what our hearts look like, but it’s pretty easy to mistake this sample for some distant, lonely exoplanet.
18. Skin Pierced By A Needle
Considering what dead skin looks like, it does stand to reason that our skin just seems like a collection of flakes when we see it up close.
Even without knowing it’s a puncture wound, though, there’s something unnerving about this hole in the “landscape.”
19. Maggot
If these creep you out in everyday life, you might be even less excited about seeing one in all of its bug-eyed glory.
I think those make it look kind of goofy, though. Maybe that helps?
20. Pollen
We may have already seen a bee covered in the stuff, but the actual pollen grains themselves are a lot harder to recognize when they stand alone.
My allergies always recognize them in a flash, though.
21. Poisonous Frog Skin
As for how we know that it’s specifically a poisonous frog, that red patch is actually a sac of the poisonous substance known as a vesicle.
22. Lettuce With E. Coli
It may not be much of stretch to imagine this as some magnified lettuce, but the E. coli bacteria are the little tubes found in that pouch in the center.
23. An Ant
Some people expressed feeling weirded out now that they know what an ant looks like up close, but I think it looks a little friendlier than I would’ve expected.
Those are some pretty kind eyes.
24. A Blade Of Grass
Not only is there a lot more going on in a blade of grass than I would’ve expected, but it also seems surprisingly happy.
I wonder if those faces suddenly look scared when the lawnmower shows up.
Let us know in the COMMENTS if you were able to guess, and SHARE with your fellow science sleuths!
