But that's how powerful are the electron microscopes that have produced images such as these, used by researchers to view the tiniest organisms and even the atoms and molecules that compose them as they explore the very mechanisms of life.
Many astronomers never actually see the stars and planets they investigate and, similarly, certain microbiologists can only ever indirectly observe the tiny organisms they study, and in both of these examples the scientific explorations and interactions are often confined to computer screens.
Individual molecules, tiny organisms like viruses and the smallest features of products like microchips operate in a nanoscale landscape.
The researchers say the bone is clearly from a baleen whale — or whales that use baleen plates in their mouths to filter meals of tiny organisms out of seawater — and looks very similar to that of the gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus.
Louisiana's wetlands — vital fish nurseries — are soiled, and the full extent of the damage to the gulf's ecosystem and its species, especially to fish larvae and the tiny organisms vital to the food chain, may not be known for years.
They occur when bacteria and other tiny organisms, often from the digestive tract, grab hold of the walls of the urethra and multiply.
Strict Jains, including Jain monks and nuns, do not eat root vegetables such as potatoes, onions and garlic, because tiny organisms are injured when the plant is pulled up, and also because a bulb or tuber's ability to sprout is seen as characteristic of a living being.
Two successive presidents, George Bush and Bill Clinton, have promised to stop the steady erosion of the nation's wetlands -- the 100 million or so acres of swamps, marshes and fens that help prevent floods, filter harmful pollutants, provide habitat for endangered species and nourish tiny organisms essential to the food chain.
Recent studies suggest these tiny organisms help us digest food and maintain our immune system.
