Sometimes while doing science, one is struck by something in the same way that one is affected by beautiful art.

Not that these are the most amazing images ever (they weren't meant to be artistic, just routine work), but I enjoyed them. They're from a project on rotifers by one of my undergraduate thesis students. They're both of Adineta vaga: the first is of the whole animal (the pink spots are the DNA), the second is the musculature on a confocal laser microscope. (Photos by K. Ashforth).


Bonus:

Here are some pictures I took several years ago. A is an ovariole from the ovary of a vinegar fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and B is the same from a flea (Ctenocephalides felis).  The huge circles are nurse cells, which are very highly endopolyploid.