Photo of the Day 309

Magnified Lipids, University of Santa Cruz, California, 1998

Photograph by O. Louis Mazzatenta

Ultraviolet light turns the membranes of magnified lipids fluorescent green. Molecular scientists study such compounds for clues about the origins of life on Earth.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "The Rise of Life on Earth," March 1998, National Geographic magazine)