Micro-photography: Not only a change of way of seeing (1)

  I am quite confused that those artists and scholars on art with conventional thinking are so opposed to modern photographic technique. They limit themselves to the ordinary photography, which they think contain less "connotation" and "authority" than a painting or sculpture. In their points of view, photography is a part of fast-food culture; people get information so directly that they no longer look deeply into the inner quintessense of the image. In a word, photography changes the way of seeing, making it a lot easier but in the price of fewer connotative elements.
  It is, partly true, but they are so shortsighted that they neglected the technological development in photography. These advancements in science and technology created a new type of art: microscopic images.
  Before electron microscopes were invented, it is impossible for human being to see anything on molecular level. Optic microscopes are strong enough, still what they can present is only a 2-dimensional colorless flat image. What's more, they work poorly in cooperation with cameras because the combination of the lens in the microscope and that in a camera may result in serious optic distortion.
  In the 1950s, however, electron microscopes expanded our sights 100 times further, enabling scientists to have a look of the world of molecules and cells. Soon they found out that the images they were looking at are so astonishing and delicate. For the first time, we know that the hypnotizing chemical signs written on the whiteboard or lethal bacterium can be so beautiful when we have a real look at them. Those powerful instruments created not only a new form of art, but also a brand-new world we've nevered imagined.
  After that, techniques for micro-photography developed quickly. STM(Scanning Tunnel Microscope), an enhanced version of electron microsope extended our sight to subatomic level. Advancement in coloration and computer graphics endow the image with color and a stereoscopic impression.
  This semester I would like post a series of micro-images from Nikon Small World, the world's most authoratative microphotography forum sponsored by the world's leading optic instrument manufacturer Nikon. In the first post of this series, I would like to attach one of the eye-catching images and guess what it is!