Get up close and personal with your innards with these 15 amazing 3D-body shots. Almost all of the following images were captured using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), a type of electron microscope that uses a beam of high-energy electrons to scan surfaces of images. The electron beam of the SEM interacts with atoms near or at the surface of the sample to be viewed, resulting in a very high-resolution, 3D-image. Magnification levels range from x 25 (about the same as a hand lens) to about x 250,000. Incredible details of 1 to 5 nm in size can be detected.
Here you’ll experience the power of SEM in a journey of self-discovery that starts in your head, travels down through the chest and ends in the bowels of the abdomen. Along the way, you’ll see what’s normal, what happens when cells are twisted by cancer and what it looks like when an egg meets sperm for the first time. You’ll never see yourself the same way again.
- Red blood cells
Image: Annie Cavanagh, Wellcome Images
- Split end of human hair
Image: Liz Hirst, Wellcome Images - Purkinje neurons
Image: Annie Cavanagh, Wellcome Images - Hair cell in the ear
Image: Wellcome Photo Library, Wellcome Images - Blood vessels emerging from the optic nerve
Image: Freya Mowat,, Wellcome Images - Tongue with taste bud
Image: David Gregory & Debbie Marshall, Wellcome Images - Tooth plague
Image: David Gregory & Debbie Marshall, Wellcome Images - Blood clot
Image: David Gregory & Debbie Marshall, Wellcome Images - Alveoli in the lung
Image: David Gregory & Debbie Marshall, Wellcome Images - Lung cancer cells
Image: Anne Weston, Wellcome Images - Villi of small intestine
Image: Professor Alan Boyde, Wellcome Images - Human egg with coronal cells
Image: Yorgos Nikas, Wellcome Images - Sperm on the surface of a human egg
Image: Yorgos Nikas, Wellcome Images - Human embryo and sperm
Image: Dr. David Becker, Wellcome Images - Coloured image of a 6 day old human embryo implanting
Image: Yorgos Nikas, Wellcome Images
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March 13th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
shopped you can tell by the pixels. i would know i’ve seen quite a few shops on the netz.
o ya first
April 17th, 2009 at 5:44 am
These shots would make a good documentary film. Stills or with motion.
April 18th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
@Michael
You’re an idiot. You can tell by the comment. I would know, I’ve seen quite a few idiots on the ‘netz’.
April 21st, 2009 at 10:39 am
These are fantastic, nature is so amazing. We humans do so many incredibly stupid things and yet we can invent the technology to create these photos!
I agree with ch3mi0n; Michael the point has totally escaped you, and your comments say a lot about the person you are though I’ve never met you. Try and find a more graceful path for yourself, I hope you can.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:26 am
this is so shopped. you’re idiots.
April 22nd, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Yeah every single one of the people who supplied these images all photoshopped them just for the hell of it *eye roll*
Just because there are photoshopped images on the internet doesn’t mean you have to disbelieve and immediately accuse every single thing you come across.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:05 am
The red blood cells would make a great inspiration for a chair or something. They look so soft. ::sits on blood:: Oh God. Nevermind.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:32 am
Photoshopped or not, I loved the images. It would be great if these images were used in schools to teach children about science here in America. It’s such a shame our schools system do not focus on science, math, and technology. My child loves science and I have to teach her myself here at home. However, these images could be used in classroom setting so students can see a close up of what occurs in their body. Totally awesome!
April 24th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
so shopped…. haha still a great joke for those who dont get it. The actual “shopping” is just digital enhancement of the dyes to differentiate cell types. Try to find the newest Biology text book put out, similar pictures, less enhanced, occur in those as well!
April 25th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Hey all you whiners out there. It’s obvious these photos are “shopped” - but more accurately, they are “colorized”, because all Electron Microscope photos are BLACK and WHITE. I think it’s nice they added color - and artistically so!
April 25th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Fascinating!
May 2nd, 2009 at 2:36 am
Katie and Michael, you are idiots, you dont even know what photo shopping means, You wouldnt know a pixel if it strangled you. The digital photographs are wonderful.
I am beginning to just hate people. There is always one or two a**holes that slam everything. I am sick of stupid people. If you dont personally know if something has been photoshopped, (if you didnt watch someone do it) then shut up. You are wrong, and you are embarrassing yourself again and again. Just in enjoy the (hint) digital photographs…
May 2nd, 2009 at 6:03 pm
truly awesome pics when you think about. that cancer cell ones got me thinking, been smoking for 20 something years…hmm lol
May 2nd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
oh yeah, the whole shopped thing…they are only saying it to wind you up, i can’t believe people are still getting wound up about it. just ignore them and they will go away.
May 5th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
I think its hilarious that people still haven’t caught on to the fact that the shopped comments are on every picture on the internet, as a joke, and because it still gets people heated. btw, this comment is shopped- i can tell by the pixels and because i have seen quite a few shops in my day.