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A Focus on Microscopes: See Eye-Catching Images

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Have you ever wondered what creates striking images of cells and other tiny structures? Most often, the answer is microscopes. Many of us have encountered basic light microscopes in science classes, but those are just one of many types that scientists use. Check out the slideshow to see images researchers have captured using different kinds of microscopes. For even more images of the microscopic world, visit the NIGMS Image and Video Gallery.

Visualizing Structures

Type of Microscope: Dark field
Used to Study: Living and dead cells

Oblong bacteria glowing blue on a black background.
Anthrax bacteria being killed by an agent that naturally glows blue when excited by ultraviolet light in the microscope.
Credit: Keiler Lab, Penn State University.

Type of Microscope: Time lapse
Used to Study: Living cells as they move over time

Cell-like compartments spontaneously emerge from scrambled frog eggs, with nuclei (blue) from frog sperm. Endoplasmic reticulum (red) and microtubules (green) are also visible.
A dividing cell of an African globe lily. This is one frame of a time-lapse sequence that shows cell division in progress.
Credit: Andrew S. Bajer, University of Oregon, Eugene.

Type of Microscope: Super resolution light
Used to Study: Activity in living cells

Oblong blue structures with red threads connected to them on the left and right.
DNA (blue) being pulled apart by microtubules (red) as a cell divides. The blue and red colors are due to the fluorescent label used to dye the sample.
Credit: Jane Stout and Claire Walczak, Indiana University.

Type of Microscope: Fluorescent light
Used to Study: Activity in dyed cells and molecules

Many spots and swirls of fluorescent green and purple.
Kidney tissue stained with fluorescent dyes that glow under high intensity light from the microscope.
Credit: Tom Deerinck and Mark Ellisman, NCMIR.

Type of Microscope: Confocal
Used to Study: 3D images of living cells

Round green-yellow structures with red edges and blue dots in their centers.
Cell-like compartments that spontaneously emerge from scrambled frog eggs, with nuclei (blue) from frog sperm.
Credit: Xianrui Cheng, Stanford University School of Medicine. Xianrui Cheng, James E. Ferrell Jr. SCIENCE 366: 631, 01 Nov 2019 (DOI: 10.1126/science.aav7793).

Type of Microscope: Electron
Used to Study: Dead cells

A circle containing many types of structures an inner circle that is clear.
Cross-section through the worm, C. elegans, revealing various internal structures frozen in time. This image was taken with transmission electron microscopy and labeled afterwards with color to highlight features in the image.
Credit: Piali Sengupta, Brandeis University.

Type of Microscope: Cryo-EM
Used to Study: Cellular components, particles (viruses, molecules, ribosomes)

An oblong capsule made up of tiny gray, yellow, and red structures.
The protein shell, or capsid, that surrounds HIV and is covered in a host protein (red), which allows the virus to evade detection.
Credit: Juan R. Perilla, Klaus Schulten, and the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group.

3 Replies to “A Focus on Microscopes: See Eye-Catching Images”

  1. I think you should have included different types of phase ie Nomarski etc., also plenty of confocal types. Otherwise great photography.

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