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One of my favorite moments of elementary-school science class was “microscope day,” a version of show-and-tell where kids brought in everyday objects to marvel at under the lens. I raided my family’s kitchen—salts, sugars, spices, chilies, peppercorns—while many others cut off tufts of aggrieved siblings’ hair. Someone brought a wriggling worm. Someone else simply picked from his nose in front of the microscope when it was his turn (our teacher let this proceed). Absolutely nothing looked like what we expected. The naked eye, I first learned on those days, was only one way of seeing the world

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