Microscopic Images2Food focus: American scientist Thomas Deerinc captured this image of salt grains and ground peppercorns

They’re innocuous objects that are dotted around every home brought to life under a powerful microscope.

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Microscopic Images5Massive magnification: An unused match’s tip (top) and a needle and thread were both photographed by Japanese artist Susumu Nishinaga

The images are of items found in various domestic settings, from the bathroom to the kitchen. A mascara brush looks like you’d imagine it to under extreme magnification, but a section of used dental floss is rather unsettling despite its bright colouration.
Elsewhere, every tiny contour of salt and ground pepper corns is revealed in extraordinary detail.
SEMs work by bombarding the object with electrons and then build extreme close-ups of the image using a computer and transmission electro microscopes.

Microscopic ImagesMusic under the microscope: Andrew Syred also took this hand-tinted image of a guitar string

Microscopic Images3Bathroom beauty: An extreme close-up of a mascara brush captured by British microscopist Andrew Syred using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)



Microscopic Images4Hygienic horror: A section of used dental floss as taken by retired scientific photographer Steve Gschmeissner, from Bedford

via dailymail