Sometimes, we can at least make an educated guess when we see pictures of things under a microscope.
Sure, a grain of salt doesn't look like we expect it to, but it's still boxy and crystalline enough that if we had to guess, it wouldn't seem impossible that that's what we're looking at.
With some items though, we'd never guess what they're supposed to be in a million years. And when we're really used to seeing something, this hidden form can be very pleasant surprise.
Not only are grains of sand a lot more colorful and beautiful than our eyes might be telling us, but it's hard to believe that they could turn out so different from each other.
As Scientific American reported, that piece around the center that looks like a "Y" is called a sponge spicule and it actually works as the skeleton for natural sponges.
Indeed, Greenberg said it would've been a very small piece at the tip of a spiral shell before it became a grain of sand.
It also looks the way it does because it spend a lot of time rolling around in the surf.
Until today, would you ever have thought that those green tubes and the blue crystal-looking piece in the middle were essentially the same thing?
h/t: Scientific American
