Microscope photos reveal an alien universe just beyond reach

Rove beetle head

Juvenile starfish

Intake of a humped bladderwort, a freshwater carnivorous plant

Adult marine worm

Tentacles of a carnivorous plant

Mouse neurons in culture

Torn photographic film (Fujifilm)

Numerical traces on a Blu-ray disc

The radula or feeding structure of a limpet (an aquatic snail)

Anther of a flowering Arabidopsis thaliana plant

Blood vessels and neural cells in a mouse retina

Root tip of a dicot plant

Red fossil coral slab

Degenerating LCD screen liquid

Jewel beetle hairs

Mouse bicep muscle cross-section

Mouth parts of a blowfly

Crystallized flame retardant

Living rotifer

Antenna of a male moth

Australian grass seed

African clawed toad tadpole's head

Vilene fabric with drops of glue

Head of a long-jawed spider

Light emitted by a single cell over time

Vascular bundles of papyrus plant

Garnet stone with magnetite inclusions

Moth wing scales

Water flea

Underside of a frog tadpole

Human stem cells that have morphed into neurons

Feeding rotifers

Hairyback worm (bottom) next to algae (top right)

Spore capsule of a moss

Crystalized acne medication

Cross-section of a fossilized bone from a prehistoric horse

Clam shrimp

Mouse colon colonized with microbes from inside a human

Mitochondria in a live cancer cell

Cross-section of a leaf on a water lily bud

Rat cerebellum cross-section

Vampire moth mouthparts, used to feed on fruit and mammals

Larva of a horseshoe worm

Cow lung artery cell, with structural fibers (black), mitochondria (red), and DNA (blue)

Mouse tongue cross section

Close-up of ancient Chinese pottery

A black witch-hazel leaf producing crystals to defend against hungry animals

A micro-engraving on a glass microscope slide created in the year 1880

Ostrich fern cross section

Bacterial DNA and a chemical probe binding inside bacteria, just following division

Gold and titanium electrodes covered by graphene sheet

Foraminifera shells from the sea

Cow artery cells

Buoyancy organs of a phantom midge larva

Eye of a honey bee covered in dandelion pollen

Stinger of a honey bee

Colony of single-celled organisms

Nostoc — a blue-green algae — showing its chlorophyll organelles (red)

A 10.5-day-old muse embryo

Individually colored neurons in a live fruit fly larva

Suction cups on a diving beetle foreleg

Skin of a sea urchin

Pollen grains of a peace lily

Human neural stem cells

Fern sorus at varying stages of maturity

Mites on insect pupa

A 3-D reconstruction of brown fat in a mouse

Lab-grown bud of a human mammary gland

Shells from a deep-sea dredge in the Southwestern Pacific Ocean

Nerves and blood vessels in a mouse ear skin

Cross section of fairburn agate from the Black Hills of South Dakota

Plastic pieces of a drifting fishing net

Zinc-stressed bacteria; red cells are healthy, yellow are impaired, and green are dead

DNA packaged inside a cell nucleus

Live imaging of blood vessels (red) in a mouse brain with a tumor (yellow/green)

Young buds of a flowering plant

A 3-day-old peanut worm larva (yellow: cilia; blue: DNA; red: serotonin in the nervous system)

Power button of a mobile phone collected from the ocean bottom, which includes bryozoan crust (right) and marine worm tube (left)

Liquid crystal

A liverwort plant's water sacs, which are often home to tiny aquatic animals called rotifers

Internal structures of a fungus mold

Nanoparticles suspended in water between two electrodes

Mouse embryo cells

The mouth of a stentor, a filter-feeding microbial animal