They are Living on Your face

Demodex are microscopic mites that naturally live on human skin. They are among the most common ectoparasites in humans, often unnoticed because of their tiny size and usually harmless nature.

Where They Are Found

Demodex mites live inside hair follicles and sebaceous (oil) glands.

They are most abundant in areas rich in sebaceous glands, such as
Face (nose, cheeks, forehead, chin)
Eyelashes and eyebrows
Ears
Scalp

Almost every adult human carries them, especially after puberty when oil gland activity increases.

Types of Demodex in Humans

1. Demodex folliculorum

Found in hair follicles

2. Demodex brevis

Lives in sebaceous and meibomian glands.

Anatomy & Structure

Size: 0.2–0.4 mm long, invisible to the naked eye.

Body is elongated, worm-like, divided into two main parts:

1. Gnathosoma (head region) – with tiny mouthparts for eating skin cells and oils.

2. Idiosoma (body region) – contains digestive system and reproductive organs.

Eight short legs near the head used for crawling slowly.

Transparent body, making them hard to detect without a microscope.

Special Features

No anus: They cannot excrete waste. Their body accumulates metabolic waste until they die, releasing it inside the follicle.

Nocturnal movement: They come out at night to mate and move between follicles.

Lifecycle: About 2–3 weeks. Eggs → larvae → nymph → adult.

They move very slowly, about 8–16 mm per hour.

Do They Cause Diseases?

Normally, Demodex are harmless commensals. However, overpopulation can lead to or be associated with skin and eye problems:

Demodicosis: Inflammation caused by too many mites.

Blepharitis: Eyelid inflammation, especially from Demodex folliculorum.

Rosacea-like skin issues: Some studies suggest Demodex density is higher in patients with rosacea.

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

🌿 Ganga Moss Under a Microscope

This tiny piece of moss from the river Ganga is not just a plant… it’s a living city.
Under the microscope, it bursts into life — algae weaving like green threads and fast-moving ciliates hunting between the leaves gliding amoeba, numerous fast moving bacteria, beautiful snails

What looks still to our eyes is actually a thriving ecosystem, packed with organisms fighting, feeding, and flowing in a world too small to see.

Every drop is a universe.
Every organism has a story.
And this moss… carries thousands.

Welcome to the micro-world of the Ganga.
A river of legends — and a galaxy of hidden life.

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

These two are just single-celled organisms; basically a bunch of building blocks and cell machinery wrapped in a membrane, and here you can see what happens when that membrane bursts and spills its contents out.

The smaller organism, Holophrya, has harpoon-like structures around its cell mouth that are expelled to immobilize prey. They usually go after smaller microorganisms or decomposing organic matter, so this whole scene was so unexpected my jaw was on the floor.

When I found these two, Holophrya’s little harpoons had already fired and pierced the cell membrane of the larger organism, a Stentor, and it was tugging on the Stentor’s membrane. After a few seconds, the membrane popped almost like a balloon, and the Stentor’s cell contents spilled into the environment for Holophrya to feed on.

Holophrya has sensory mechanisms that let it detect the chemical signals coming from the spilled contents of the Stentor. So it kept swimming around for minutes, swallowing all the soup-like cytoplasm droplets and solid chunks of organelles, and even the bits of lunch Stentor had earlier.

While Holophrya was feeding on its spilled “guts,” the Stentor was busy repairing the hole in its membrane. Although it lost a lot of cell mass, Stentor has the ability to recover from all this and regenerate its deformed cell back to normal like nothing has happened. I wish I had that skill of regenerating emotionally, I’m like a savant of sad memories and broken cell membranes. 😂

Thank you for reading!
Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

Here's some chemistry Fireworks ✨

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

🧅✨ What’s hiding on your onion skin? Let’s zoom in! 🔬
Thoroughly wash your veggies and you are safe!

Onion peels are not just kitchen waste—they hide a fascinating microscopic world. When an onion peel is left exposed, black-colored fungal growth can often be seen. Under the microscope, this appears as fine black dust, which are actually spores. These spores help the fungus spread and survive in different conditions. Such fungi usually belong to the group Ascomycetes or Zygomycetes and thrive on the moist surface of onion peels.

Apart from fungi, onion peels also reveal beautiful calcium oxalate crystals when viewed microscopically. These crystals are known as raphides. Plants produce them as a defense mechanism against herbivores—if eaten in large amounts, they can cause irritation in the mouth.

So, a simple onion peel becomes a stage where both microbial colonizers (fungus) and plant defenses (calcium oxalate crystals) can be seen side by side—showing how life forms interact at the microscopic level.

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

Brain eating amoeba

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

52 hours of imaging! I'm so happy with the result. I put off doing this for a while because I was so busy. But this time I wanted to test the new microscope so thought might as well give it a go. And even though we have worked with embryos for a long time, seeing it with your own eyes how well coordinated every cell is, how they synchronise their division and then their movement, exactly the same even between embryos is still breathtaking! This is the reason why we say biological systems are robust! How signalling molecules are organised and patterned is not well understood at all.

It's also bit tricky when the embryos are 3D objects, so you can see that cells at different depth layers will be at different focuses, especially when the embryos move around too. So I had to do a z-stack and then used a small trick to stitch the different layers together hence why you may notice there's certain changes in the focus during the video.

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

🔬✨ The World Beneath the Lens: Neil Dust Under a Microscope!

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

“Human breastmilk is more than just nutrition — it’s a living, dynamic substance. Under the microscope, you’ll see fat globules suspended like tiny galaxies, immune cells moving with purpose, and complex proteins forming intricate patterns. It adapts to a baby’s needs in real-time, delivering antibodies, enzymes, and even stem cells. What looks simple on the outside is biologically brilliant up close.”

“These clips reveals the hidden complexity of breastmilk — one of the most advanced substances the human body produces.”

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

Cell stages and chromosome arrangement under microscope.

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

Harissa magnified 400x under a microscope! 😳

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

I Phone Microscope

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

Zooming into my coffee.

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

🐝Bee honeycombs in the hive.

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

🌨City snow under a microscope.

It contains many bacteria and micro-debris, so do not allow children to eat it.

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬

Sharpening a knife blade in macro photography.

Subscribe ➡️ Under the Microscope 🔬