Look closely at the picture above and take a guess as to what it is. A banana? A rock wall? The skin of a kiwi? I asked my friends and family what they thought the photo looked like, and they were all stumped. If you look even closer, you might realize that this is a picture of a pinecone. I took this picture using a microscope in my science class, revealing the pinecone’s details. I thought this was interesting because if I were to draw what I thought a pinecone looks like under a microscope prior to this experiment, it would not have looked like that. I also became more intrigued by the structure of the pinecone, and I would not have noticed its intricate design, if not for my photo. Fun fact! The individual plates of a pinecone are called scales. I encourage you to take time to go into nature and see what you can find!