One of the instruments I've had to use in my research is a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). A SEM is capable of resolving images much smaller than an optical microscope by several orders of magnitude. I am using the SEM to examine pieces of stainless steel for corrosion. Every now and then I get some extra SEM time that's not long enough to look at my samples but I can stick in an everyday object for a few minutes and take some interesting pictures. Items I've looked at, besides my steel samples, include: compact disc (recordable), microchips (EPROM and op amp), and a thumbtack (must've been a very boring day). You can click links below to look at images of these. A quick note - there are two sets for the EPROM chip because I broke the chip into two parts in hopes of veiwing a cross section.