Big tick for entomologists and biosecurity: 3D colour scans of insects

Credit: John Tann under CC BY 2.0 Observation is a cornerstone of science – we learn much about the universe and how it works just by looking at it. But observation can be a huge challenge. It’s easy to forget that human eyes allow us to see only the tiniest fraction of the universe in all its complexity: we can’t see things that are too big or too small, we can’t see inside most objects and we can’t observe events that happen too fast or too slow. But in a paper recently published in PLOS ONE, we demonstrated a new way for researchers to easily see the tiniest details on the tiniest insects in full colour, 3D and high-definition – even if those insects are on the other side of the world. Even better, our technique doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. But first, we’ll explain why such imaging techniques are important.