Credits: Anatoly I. Mikhaltsov/ Children’s Ecological and Biological Center
Small Wonders: Science Meets Art under the Lens [Slide Show]
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MOTH CATERPILLAR: In a second micrograph made by Siwanowicz, a slug moth caterpillar prepares to bundle up in a silk cocoon for the last phase of its metamorphosis into the adult moth form. Each of its simple eyes has six dome-shaped lenses... Igor Siwanowicz/Howard Hughes Medical Institute
LEAF HAIRS: Star-shaped hairs cover the leaves of the ornamental shrub Deutzia scabra . The hairs, which measure around 0.25 millimeter across, defend against grazing animals, wind, frost and ultraviolet radiation...
ZEBRA FISH EMBRYO: Karen W. Dehnert, Scott T. Laughlin, Holly Aaron and Carolyn R. Bertozzi of the University of California, Berkeley, obtained this image of a live zebra fish embryo, 19 hours old, using 10× magnification while studying how the distribution of a class of carbohydrates containing a sugar known as fucose changes during development... Karen W. Dehnert and Holly Aaron/ University of California, Berkeley
FERN SPORANGIA: Inspect the underside of a fern frond, and you may find it covered with dark spots known as sori. Each sorus is made up of clusters of structures called sporangia that contain spores for reproduction... Igor Siwanowicz/Howard Hughes Medical Institute
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BUTTERFLY WING: The abstract beauty of a butterfly wing is revealed in this image by Sahar Khodaverdi, who is earning a master's degree in plant biology at the University of Tabriz in Iran. Butterfly wings are covered with delicate scales... Sahar Khodaverdi/University of Tabriz
DIATOM REPRODUCTION: The marine diatom Rhizosolenia setigera undergoes binary fission, a type of asexual reproduction in which a mother cell divides into two daughter cells. The golden structures are chloroplasts, bodies that carry out photosynthesis... Wolfgang Bettighofer
RETINAL ASTROCYTES: A tapestry of cells in a mouse retina reveals a network of spidery astrocytes ( black ) that balances the amounts of ions and water in the space around neurons ( orange ) and their axons ( green )... Alejandra Bosco/University of Utah
ALOIN CELLS: Botanist Anatoly I. Mikhaltsov of the Children's Ecological and Biological Center in Omsk, Russia, was studying the anatomy of Aloe erinacea , an endangered species of aloe endemic to Namibia, when he captured this image of the plant's aloin cells ( blue )—which secrete a component of the gel-like sap that oozes from an aloe's severed leaf—using a coloring method that he developed... Anatoly I. Mikhaltsov/Children's Ecological and Biological Center
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