False-colour scanning electron micrograph of skin from the palm of the hand of a 30 year old man. The skin here is neatly arranged in ridges. Sweat pores are seen as miniature craters along the ridges. The cells forming the external surface of the skin, or epidermis, have been flattened & hardened by deposition within them of the fibrous protein keratin. This tough, dead layer of cells is shed continuously & is replaced by new, maturing cells which take a month to migrate from the base of the epidermis. Magnification: x7 at 35mm size. Pink tint. Reference: MICROCOSMOS, figure 2.49, page 40.