Eye Sight

Photograph by Martin Oeggerli, National Geographic

A scanning electron microscope (SEM) captures the intricacies of a fruit fly s eye. The compound eye is a tightly packed collection of single lenses that gives the fly a gridlike view of the world. Scientists suspect the bristles may help protect the lenses, which have no eyelids, from dirt and debris. Photographer Martin Oeggerli specializes in shooting very small things using an SEM at the School of Life Sciences in Muttenz, Switzerland. His images appear in the story Bug-Eyed in the June 2015 issue of National Geographic magazine.