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Martin Oeggerli

Microbes in the human gut help digest food and aid nutrient absorption, key parts of overall health. This hand-colored scanning electron micrograph reveals the large number and variability of bacteria present in human excrement.

This electron microscope scan shows a circulating tumor cell (CTC) cluster seen within the filters of a microfluidic device used to process blood samples. Every cell of the cluster comes from the same patient. This metastatic cell cluster, which is smaller than a full-stop in a magazine, floats through the blood and settles in healthy tissues, allowing the cancer to spread.

A scanning electron microscope image of Escherichia coli, the yellow rods clustered on a purple substrate.

In the January 2020 issue, National Geographic explored how the trillions of microbes living in and on us shape our very nature. This richly-textured image shows a blooming microbial colony cultivated from a woman's lips. People who often kiss each other will develop similarities in their oral microbiomes.

Crocus sativus: Some 150 compounds in the Crocus sativus flower’s stigma give saffron its pungent taste and haylike fragrance. These compounds, including safranal, likely evolved to attract pollinators. It takes 210,000 of these stigmas, from a football field’s worth of crocuses, to yield a pound of saffron.

This green landscape is a section of a single leaf of the basil plant (Ocimum basilicum). The small round structures on the leaf, each of which looks as though it might house elves or some other magical creature, are glands containing the chemicals that produce the flavors and aromas of the basil plant. There are many varieties of basil, each having a unique set of chemicals in its glands.

Lavender (Lavandula spp.) has long been used to perfume homes, food, and drinks. It offers a feeling of warmth, a sort of aromatic welcoming. Up close, it is something else entirely, a desert scene complete with spiny, cactus-like hairs meant to keep herbivores away and hold water in.

Part of a sculpture by Calder, perhaps? No. This is the bright red stigma of the saffron flower, Crocus sativus. It takes roughly 170,000 flowers and their stigmas to produce one kilogram of saffron. As a result, it is one of the most expensive spices in the world.

A rosemary leaf (Rosmarinus officinalis) looks like a fuzzy animal or a long-lost relative who forgot to shave. This hair is functional and helps the plant withstand droughts and other harsh conditions, but it also adds a texture to the rosemary itself when it is used in cooking, a texture that is subtle and yet detectable, a hint of fur on the tongue.

Sometimes the fine structures of plants each have some significance. In other cases, their details are the chance result of the vagaries of evolution. The hairs of a sage leaf (Salvia officinalis) relate to the climate in which the plant lives. The leaves have glands filled with chemicals relating to the plant's need to defend itself. But the glands and hairs together look like alien faces, well, that is pure chance.