The Amateur Scientist; August 1996; Scientific American Magazine; by Carlson; 3 Page(s)

There's a lot going on down among the microns. What we perceive as a rigid surface squashes easily under a finger's gentle pressure when viewed from a distance of a millionth of a meter. Increasing the temperature sends objects at that scale into even more violent upheavals.

Biological processes reshape many living things on this scale. For example, every beat of an insect's dorsal vessel--essentially, its heart--flexes its abdomen by a few microns.