Cesar Pava - Digital Scientific Colourist

21/01/2026

Human uterus surface 🔬Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)

The black and white image shows the original SEM data.
The three colour versions are different interpretations of the same surface.

Colour helps reveal texture, depth and spatial organisation, making the complex landscape of the uterine lining easier to read and less visually monotonous while preserving the underlying scientific information.

© Science Photo Library
🎨Digital colourisation: Cesar Pava

13/01/2026

Plankton 🔬 Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)

The black-and-white image shows the original SEM data.
The colour versions are different interpretations of the same structure.

Colour helps reveal surface texture, depth and form, guiding the eye through the intricate architecture of plankton and transforming a monochrome micrograph into a more engaging and readable image.

© Science Photo Library
Digital colourisation: Cesar Pava

27/12/2025

Small lizard X-ray 🩻 colourised radiography

The black-and-white image shows the original X-ray.
The three colour versions are different interpretations of the same data.

Colour helps separate bones, soft tissues and overlapping structures, guiding the eye through the image and reducing visual monotony while preserving the scientific content.

© Science Photo Library
🎨Colourisation by Cesar Pava

10/12/2025

🔬🎨Different colour versions of a bronchial epithelium cell, plus the original SEM image.
These are cells that line our airways and help keep them clean as we breathe. Their tiny extensions show just how active and complex our lungs are at a microscopic level.

Coloured by Cesar Pava · © Science Photo Library

03/12/2025

🔬 A closer look at the tiny spheres hidden inside everyday sunscreen.
This coloured scanning electron micrograph reveals a silicon microsphere surrounded by a landscape of powder like particles. These perfectly rounded spheres are often added to modern sunscreen formulas to improve texture and help scatter light, contributing to a subtle cooling effect on the skin.

At this microscopic scale, something as familiar as sun cream becomes a miniature world of shapes and surfaces, quietly supporting mineral filters like titanium dioxide and zinc oxide in protecting the skin from sunlight.

© Science Photo Library
Digital colourisation: Cesar Pava

26/11/2025

🔬A dense cluster of bacteria spreading across intestinal tissue, seen through a scanning electron microscope (SEM).
These rod-shaped microbes form a thick layer as they attach to the gut surface, one of the changes that can happen during bacterial colitis. The tangled fibres you see are part of the tissue the bacteria cling to as inflammation grows.

This post shows three colour variations of the same SEM image, each one highlighting different details of the bacterial invasion.

© Science Photo Library
Digital colourisation: Cesar Pava

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19/11/2025

Ebola virus under the electron microscope.
This transmission electron micrograph shows the characteristic filamentous shape of the Ebola virus, here curled into a striking spiral form. Unlike most viruses, Ebola forms long, flexible threads that can loop, branch, or coil, giving it a uniquely elegant yet deadly morphology.

Digitally coloured to reveal structure and depth, turning a microscopic pathogen into an abstract biological composition.

© Science Photo Library — coloured by Cesar Pava
Coloured on PC.

09/11/2025

What you’re seeing here is dental plaque, viewed under a scanning electron microscope.
This tangled structure is a biofilm of bacteria, food traces, and minerals, all attached to a single fibre of an interdental brush.
These microbial communities grow quietly between our teeth, in the places a regular toothbrush can’t reach.
A whole world living in the smallest of spaces.

Original SEM © Science Photo Library.
Digitally coloured by me.

31/10/2025

"Cilia dance in the fallopian tube"

Inside the human fallopian tube, millions of microscopic cilia move rhythmically, creating gentle waves that guide the egg on its journey toward the uterus.
In this coloured scanning electron micrograph, the ciliated cells appear as green tufts, while the reddish areas show secretory cells that release nourishing fluids.

Copyright © Science Photo Library. Colourised by Cesar Pava.

22/10/2025

Sometimes the tiniest structures hide the most amazing designs.
Here’s one of my recent colourisations — a fascinating view under the electron microscope.

“Under the scanning electron microscope, even the tiniest grain of pollen becomes a world of textures and shapes.
Its spiky surface helps it travel with pollinating insects — nature’s own masterpiece in miniature.
Digitally colourised to reveal its hidden beauty.”

© Science Photo Library
🎨 Colourisation by Cesar Pava

16/10/2025

Digitally colourised chest X-ray showing a lung tumour.
I apply digital colour to medical images to enhance visual impact and highlight key anatomical structures, while preserving their scientific accuracy.

This type of radiograph is often used to illustrate lung cancer in clinical imaging and educational contexts.

Colourisation by Cesar Pava – © SPL / Science Photo Library

07/10/2025