Healthy arteriole in eye, with tough, flexible elastin wall (pink), red blood cells (red) and supporting collagen fibers (web-like netting) surrounded by yellow and green areas.

Image courtesy of Donald Pottle, The Schepens Eye Research Institute, Boston and Bioscapes.

Beta-tubulin expression of a Drosophila (fruit fly) third instar larval brain, with attached eye imaginal discs.

Image courtesy of Christian Klambt and Imke Schmidt, University of Munster, Germany and Bioscapes.

What says happy holidays and Happy New Year better than a transverse section of rachis (stem) of bracken fern, created using differential interference contrast microscopy?

Image courtesy of David Maitland and Nikon Small World.

This immunohistochemistry image, stained to visualize different stroma biomarkers in a mouse liver tumor,  colorfully captures the variegated heterogeneity of the tumor microenvironment.

Image courtesy of A.E. Nel, et al. National Cancer Institute.

A 3D-structured illumination reveals a synaptonemal complex, a protein structure that forms between homologous chromosomes during cell division. It’s believed SCs function primarily as scaffolds to allow interacting chromatids to complete their crossover activities.

Image courtesy of Chung-Ju-Rachel Wang and Bioscapes.

This image of the hippocampus in a rat brain was taken using an ultra-widefield high-speed multiphoton laser microscope. Tissue was stained to reveal the organization of glial cells (cyan), neurofilaments (green) and DNA (yellow).

Image courtesy of Thomas Deerinck, NCMIR and NIH.

t’s as lovely as a snowflake in winter, but something entirely different: a crystal of sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra tablets.

Image courtesy of Annie Cavanagh, Wellcome Collection.

Confocal micrograph of bacterial biofilm on a human tongue cell. The oral cavity harbors more than 700 species of bacteria, second only to the gut.

Image courtesy of Tagide deCarvalho, University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Confocal micrograph of the embryonic hand of a Madagascar giant day gecko (Phelsuma grandis), which grow to up to 12 inches and live 8-15 years.

Image courtesy of Grigori Timin and Michel Milinkovitch, University of Geneva.

A neuron covered in dendritic spines from the striatum of an adult rat brain. The striatum is a cluster of interconnected nuclei that form a part of the basal ganglia. It is involved in decision-making functions, such as motor control, emotion, habit formation and reward.

Image courtesy of Stephanie Huang, Victoria University of Wellington School of Biological Sciences, New Zealand.