Magnified Sand Grains More Beautiful Than You Thought

Who knew that sand could be so beautiful? While we tend to think of sand as a collection of neutral-colored grains, when magnified 250 times, sand reveals its true assortment of colors, shapes, and sizes. Professor Gary Greenberg at the University College London, magnified individual grains of sand, showing that they really look like an assortment of gemstones and miniature shells.

Greenberg developed a new form of magnification photography to capture his images of the sand, to avoid the problems he was encountering before with the shallow depth of field. Copies of Greenberg’s coffee table book, featuring his sand photographs, are available on his website for $20. More of these amazing sand pictures below.

(via Gizmodo, images via Sandgrains.com)