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More detail with microscopes

2 different microscopic magnifications of an earwig.

Microscopes increase the amount of detail we can see. When an earwig is viewed with the naked eye, hairs on its abdomen are scarcely visible. At 30x magnification on a scanning electron microscope (left), individual hairs can be distinguished, and at 600x (right), you can see differences in the length and shape of individual hairs.

Rights: Liz Girvan
Published: 29 February 2012Size: 266.86 KB