"One of my favorite moments of elementary-school science class was "microscope day," a version of show-and-tell where kids brought in everyday objects to marvel at under the lens. I raided my family's kitchen-salts, sugars, spices, chilies, peppercorns-while many others cut off tufts of aggrieved siblings' hair. Someone brought a wriggling worm. Someone else simply picked from his nose in front of the microscope when it was his turn (our teacher let this proceed). Absolutely nothing looked like what we expected."
"My colleague Alan Taylor, who looks at hundreds, sometimes thousands, of photos a day to compile the photo essays you may already know and love, recently published a selection from the Nikon Small World 2025 photomicrography competition that took me all the way back to science class. These photographs show geometry and color; they are not what they seem. Before clicking through to see the answers in the image captions, try guessing what each of the photos below is depicting:"
Elementary-school "microscope day" revealed that everyday objects appear radically different under magnification. Children examined salts, sugars, spices, chilies, peppercorns, tufts of hair, worms, and even nose-picking, and none of the items looked like their naked-eye counterparts. The naked eye is only one way of seeing the world. A curated selection from the Nikon Small World 2025 photomicrography competition showcases photographs that emphasize geometry and color and subvert expectations about familiar subjects. Viewers are invited to guess images before checking captions; four photographers and locations are listed as examples. A reader photograph of Tipsoo Lake evokes alpine serenity and lasting awe.
Read at The Atlantic
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