National Geographic: The Invisible World

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Though remarkably sensitive and

accurate

the human eye is an extremely limited

device a surprisingly

narrow window on our world

In the fragile film of a soap

bubble lies a normally

unseen realm a miniature liquid

kaleidoscope

too small for our eyes to see

Vivid detail is also hidden within

an instant of time

Many events are simply too fast to

be seen with the unaided eye

When time is compressed

once motionless sights magically

come to life

A voracious army of fire ants

devours a helpless cricket

It is an awesome

day long process too slow

for us to notice

Beyond the spectrum of visible

light lie strange

and extraordinary sights images

created with forms of energy

which elude the naked eye

Today, as never before

cameras and other instruments

that see are radically expanding the

of our vision and knowledge

and altering forever our image

of the world

Join us now on a visual journey beyond

the limits of the naked eye

on a voyage into "The Invisible World"

We are visual creatures

reliant on our eyes as our primary

link with the world

Able at a glance to estimate size

measure depth, register movement

make sudden shifts in focus

and instantly distinguish s million

different colors,

our eyes are the most highly developed

of all living species

Yet, despite our eyes' amazing powers

and remarkable versatility

there are infinite sights around

us to

which we are totally blind

If our vision is expanded beyond

its normal bounds

a whole new world of experience

suddenly unfolds

Through the specialized eyes of

cameras come new dimensions of seeing

Fleeting movement hidden by time...

details shrouded by distance

and size

are revealed as vivid images

which our eyes alone could

never discern

The camera must often come to the aid

of our blinkered sense of sight

What thousands of eyes have

witnessed firsthand

we must rely on a camera to

actually see

Possessed with powers to reveal

the world in myriad ways

that our unaided eyes cannot

cameras and other imaging tools are

extending enormously the limited

reach of our vision probing

once distant

and unimagined realms that lie hidden

all around us

We delight in exploring the world

we can see

But even up close

our eyes can barely resolve objects

that are one three hundredths of

an inch in diameter a fraction

the size of a tiny grain of sand

What seems very small in human scale is

but the threshold of a microcosm

beyond the limits of our eyes

In a tiny drop of water

a bounty of life too small to see

Like spaceships from an alien world

delicate creatures called plankton

silently maneuver

through their seemingly

boundless universe

Completely unknown until the invention

of the microscope some 400 years ago

the discovery of plankton and other

microlife provoked unparalleled wonder

When seen for the first time

it was difficult to believe

that living things could be so

small-that a single

drop of water could contain

a miniature world

Indispensable tools of science

modern microscopes fitted

with cameras can now easily

recapture the sights

that were seen when man first

glimpsed the microworld

Bacteria. Discovered in 1674

their tiny size and great abundance

seemed nearly inconceivable

A slice of leaf revealed a complex

structure of tiny living cells

which no one had dreamed existed

Blood was seen to be composed of

millions of free-floating corpuscles

The sight of a cell dividing

seemed a miracle

of nature-another astounding discovery

which would help to lay the foundations

of modern biology and medicine

With a microscope that filters

the direction of incoming light

the composition of the physical

world can be vividly explored

When a liquid transforms into

a solid-as

when water turns to ice-the

tiny crystals

that will form its structure

organize into shape

Recorded on film at actual speed

we can witness the other invisible

process known as crystallization

Seeing with a beam of electrons

rather than with light

a powerful new instrument called

the scanning electron microscope

has penetrated an uncharged level

of detail and size

For David Scharf, a researcher

and photographer

it is a means to explore a whole

new world of inner space

Though we seem to be leaving some

distant planet's surface

our voyage, in fact, is much

more contained

The cratered terrain we have left

behind is the surface of a moon rock

the size of a grain of sand

The fragile structure of an alyssum

flower is barely visible to the eye

In the vacuum chamber of

the microscope

a focused beam of electrons

will be aimed

across the flower's surface to

form a magnified image

Zap

Through the microscope's probing eye

the tiny flower reveals a delicate

structure of unexpected complexity

When magnified more than 20,000 times

we can see single grains of pollen

If we spy a little closer on the

intimate places we know

we might come to feel like strangers

in our own familiar world

Zigzags of rough-hewn channels

gouged into a surface

are a magnified view of

the narrow grooves

in an ordinary phonograph record

This barren, rutted terrain is not

as remote as it seems

It is the porous surface of the

tip of a ball-point pen

A tangled network of sinuous fibers

when enlarged 4,000 times

hardly resembles what we usually see

as a smooth sheet of writing paper

In the sofas and beds of even our

best kept homes

microscopic dust mites quietly

live their lives

Like miniature dinosaurs from

a long lost world

their bodies rarely grow large

enough for the naked eye to see

Dependent on us for survival

dust mites feed primarily

on the flakes of dead

which our bodies constantly shed

What at first sight appears to

be a crude medieval machine

is actually a precision instrument

nearly all of us depend on

Its roughly chiseled surface offers

little clue

that this clumsy contraption is

actually the complex movement of

an ordinary wristwatch

Our skin itself hides a miniature world

from the normal view of our eyes

When seen at high magnification

an alien landscape appears

Stubbles of hair grow like tree

stumps in a terrain

whose complex ecology supports

a wide variety of life

On almost any strand of hair

tiny fungi can be found

In numerous forms, their population

on our hair

and skin numbers in the tens

of thousands

Our intimate fellow travelers

fungi have lived with us through

evolution

to establish a permanent niche

in the habitat of our skin

In the roots of everyone's eyelashes

live tiny mites

called Demodex folliculorum

Apparently they cause us no harm

But why they are there and exactly

what they do have yet to be discovered

The varied micro-landscapes on the

surface of our bodies

also fall prey to less

desirable guests

Meet Pediculus humanus capitis

the head louse a tiny

and bothersome pest

which lives its life firmly attached

to a single strand of hair

Sarcoptes scabiei, the scabies mite

is a microscopic creature that makes

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