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Microscopy: an art?

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 3, pages 133–137 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

There can be no doubt that the finest creator of beauty is Mother Nature. And in many ways, science is the exploration of this beauty and of the mechanisms that have created it. Microscopy, as a technique in scientific investigation, has had a key role in uncovering nature's beauty, which has led some to propose that microscopy could be described as an art or even an art form. But is this claim justified?

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Figure 1: Symmetry at the ultrasound and macroscopic levels.
Figure 2: Golgi cisternae seen by transmission electron microscopy.
Figure 3: Brush border of an epithelial cell from the kidney proximal tubule.
Figure 4: COPI-coated vesicles budding from the Golgi apparatus.
Figure 5: Drawing by Marcello Malpighi from Anatome plantarum.
Figure 6: Drawing by Ramón y Cajal of the cell types and connections in the mammalian retina.
Figure 7: Nuclear envelope of an epithelial cell from rat kidney.
Figure 8: Microvilli of absorptive cells of the small intestine.
Figure 9: Protein particle aggregate in the cell membrane that mediates cell-to-cell communication.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the many friendly eyes and minds that helped us write this essay. The illustrations stem from Lelio Orci's research that has been funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the University of Geneva since 1972.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Morphology, University Medical Center, Geneva, 4, 1211, Switzerland

    Lelio Orci & Michael S. Pepper

Authors
  1. Lelio Orci
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  2. Michael S. Pepper
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Correspondence to Lelio Orci.

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DATABASES

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

Camillo Golgi

Marcello Malpighi

Robert Koch

Santiago Ramón y Cajal

FURTHER READING

Imagenes neurologicas

Microscapes

Microscopy and art

Scanning electron microscopy for the arts

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Orci, L., Pepper, M. Microscopy: an art?. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 3, 133–137 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm726

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