Up Close and Personal with Your Morning Coffee

If you haven’t had your first (second, third, fourth) cup of caffeine – or you’re enjoying it right now – this is what your coffee looks like extremely close up.

This scanning electron micrograph shows a 40 micron-long caffeine crystal group that formed on the end of a large crystal.  And while it may have been false-colored for the sake of detail, even in black and white there’d be little surprise that this wild-looking compound can get you going in the morning.

The image, one winner in the Wellcome Image Awards for inspiring science imagery, was photographed by Annie Cavangh and David McCarthy.  And if it made you stop and think about just what it is you drink every morning, the micrograph has probably done its job.

(Via Gizmodo, Image by Annie Cavangh and David McCarthy)