If there were ever a time to look at creepy, crawly things up close, it's during Halloween, isn't it? 'Betcha can't guess what is in this picture. Go ahead, guess. Give up? It's a mosquito's heart 100 times magnified. This photomicrograph (photograph taken through a microscope) by Jonas King from Vanderbilt University won first place in Nikon's 2010 International Small World contest . Both this photo and the one at the top of a flea 20 times magnified, were taken using fluorescence microscopy . In fluorescence microscopy, the object being studied is stained with a special fluorescent material. It is then illuminated with a certain wavelength of ultraviolet light which it absorbs. The object then emits light at a different wavelength which is recorded by the fluorescence microscope. The picture above is of a five-day old zebrafish head (20 times magnified), taken using confocal microscopy . Confocal microscopy uses a single point of light to scan a
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