Looking for something special to wear this Valentine’s Day? You can find these heart tees and more in my Thinx Gifts store.

Microbes: They’re invisible. They’re everywhere. And they rule. 

Contemplate the beauty of caffeine while you consume it with these photo mugs featuring coloured scanning electron micrographics (SEM) of anhydrous caffeine crystals (1,3,7-trimethylxanthine) made by the Science Photo Library. They’re available in my Thinx Gifts Amazon store.

Nikon recently announced its winners for the Nikon Small World Contest. Here are a few of my favorites. Click on the images to see what they are.

Think you can guess what these things are? Wired doesn’t think you can.

Worlds Within Worlds: Incredible Nano Images Invisible to the Naked Eye is a fun gallery from Environmental Graffiti featuring submissions to the FEI Electron Microscope Company  photo contest.

Spectacularly colorful microscopy by Igor Siwanowicz

MicROCKScopica by Bernardo Cesare

About the project:

Along with an exciting geological history, every piece of rock hides an universe of colors and shapes, that can be disclosed with a microscope and utilizing polarized light…

Images from the exhibit American Museum of Natural History’s exhibit Picturing Science: Museum Science and Imaging Technologies.

About the exhibition:

Whether Museum scientists are studying parasites, people, or planets in other solarsystems, cutting-edge imaging technologies such as infrared photography, scanning electron microscopes, and CT scanners now make it possible to examine details that were previously unobservable. This exhibition, curated by Mark Siddall, curator in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology, features more than 20 sets of large-format images that showcase the wide range of research being conducted at the Museum as well as how various optical tools are used in scientific studies.

Rainbow nanoplankton and a colorful Morpho butterfly wing as seen through a microscope. 

ZnO flowers by Francisco Rangel. These ZnO nanoparticles were obtained by hydrothermal synthesis using microwave heating. 

Sand magnified over 250x by Dr. Gary Greenberg

Victorian microscope slides

That’s Like, Whoa’s gallery of Creepy Bugs Under Electron Microscopes is scarier than anything found in a Hollywood monster movie. A plea to all mad scientists: please stop working on that laser/genetic manipulation/radiation dose that might make these huge.

Slightly Warped Curiosities has put together a gallery of everyday items viewed through the microscope called A Closer Look. Click on the images to see what these items are and check out the original gallery for even more.