Tweaking The Body's Serial Killer - T Cells Under The Microscope

British scientists have produced a series of videos showing microscopic Cytotoxic 'killer' T cells destroying cancer cells in the human bloodstream. Their analysis of the T cell's remarkably efficient, destructive qualities aims to eventually improve the body's natural immunity against cancer and help overcome autoimmune diseases. Jim Drury reports.

Olympus Touch-Panel Microscope Series

Olympus DSX Series Microscopes

U.S. Laboratory Chimps Under The Microscope In Washington

Controversy surrounding use of chimpanzees in bio-medical research is re-surfacing in the United States as legislation outlawing the practice is being considered by Congress. The government owns or pays for several hundred chimps for use as subjects for vaccine tests, and there's a body of scientific opinion that wants to keep it that way. Rob Muir reports.

Hydrothermal Worm Viewed Under An Electron Microscope

Dean Praetorius, The Huffington Post

This is not photoshop, no clever graphics, no movie scene... it's a hydrothermal worm.

And it's a real creature.

It's just really, really small. So small in fact, that this image comes from an electron microscope.

Taken using an FEI Quanta SEM, this image is amazingly zoomed in 525 times. The real width of the field in the image is 568μm, or 568/1000 of a millimeter. It's far larger than an atom, but still among the smallest living things.

The worm, as scary as it looks, is something most people will never actually get to see (or have to worry about, for that matter). Hydrothermal worms are deep sea creatures, almost as small as bacterium, and are largely found near hydrothermal vents in the ocean.

This shot was captured by Philippe Crassous and submitted to FEI's gallery. Other amazing shots taken using FEI's microscopes can be seen here.

Last month, scientists reported they had discovered the first multicellular life in the deep subsurface biosphere, or rather, "worms from hell." But perhaps the title is more fitting for this hydrothermal worm.

The full image, courtesy of FEI and Philippe Crassous:

Click To Enlarge

20 Amazing Microscope Pictures

These pictures are taken  from the book ‘ Microcosmos‘, created by Brandon Brill . This book includes many scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of insects, human body parts and household items. These are the most amazing images of what is too small to see with the naked eye.

01 – A wood or heathland Ant, Formica fusca, holding a microchip

02 – The surface of an Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory silicon microchip

03 – Eyelash hairs growing from the surface of human skin

04 – The surface of a strawberry

05 – Bacteria on the surface of a human tongue

06 – Human sperm (spermatozoa), the male sex cells

07 – The nylon hooks and loops of velcro

08 – Household dust which includes long hairs such as cat fur, twisted synthetic and woolen fibers, serrated insect scales, a pollen grain, plant and insect remains

09 – The weave of a nylon stocking

10 – The end of the tongue (proboscis) of a hummingbird hawkmoth

11 – The head of a mosquito

12 – A human head louse clinging to a hair

13 – The eight eyes (two groups of four) on the head of a Mexican red-kneed tarantula

14 – Cut hairs and shaving foam between two razor blades

15 – Cigarette paper

16 – The corroded surface of a rusty metal nail

17 – The head of a Romanesco cauliflower

18 – The fungus Aspergillus fumigatus

19 – Mushrooms spores

20 – A clutch of unidentified butterfly eggs on a raspberry plant