While most colors come from pigments, iridescence results from light interacting with nanostructures inside cells—which can only be seen under a microscope ... feathers are easy to work with ...
The youngsters went out on to the common looking for natural things to study under the microscope and collected mosses, ...
When I was about 6, my great-grandmother, who was a public-school science administrator, showed me a bird’s feather under a microscope. Seeing it up close was pretty spectacular and moving for me.