Offering an eye into a world too small to see, the Exploratorium's Microscope Imaging Station brings visitors up close and personal with the motion and development in the biological world. The site is chock full of time-lapse movies of biological phenomena like cell division, phagocytosis, and dancing ameobas. There's  also a plethora of still images, many of which have scale bars, allowing the site visitor to get a sense of the real-world size of what they're looking at. Stem cells, drosophila, zebrafish development and fertilization are just a few of the topics visualized here.

The site's assets were created using state-of-the-art microscopes like those that would be found in leading research labs, so the quality an aesthetic are top of the line. The site offers visuals of phenomena that would be hard to find elsewhere: for the most part, people who have access to these media-creation resources are scientists working on organisms that have mutations or other abnormalities. Teachers, though, are hungry for images of normal organisms and developmental processes, phenomena unlikely to be recorded by researchers. The media on this site fill a gap for many biology teachers.

Another feature of the site is a growing series of movies titled "A Scientist's View." These 5-to7-minute clips include time-lapse movies made with the Imaging Station microscopes, with a voiceover by a researcher in the field, describing what he or she sees as it unfolds and how this sort of research connects to advancement in human health and medicine.

Designed with educators in mind, the MIS also offers some hands-on activities (as of this posting, there were several new activities in progress that should be available in several months' time).  The movies and stills are also available in a variety of formats, and some are downloadable.

The MIS website is an outgrowth of the Microscope Imaging Station on the Exploratorium's museum floor. That exhibit includes several scopes featuring live organisms, and panels give visitors access to controls for the scope's light, focus, and other microscope operations.