GelSight might find its true home outside the lab, in providing quality control for manufacturers and perhaps helping forensic investigators, since the patterns left on bullet casings by guns, easily visible with the device, can help pinpoint what weapon was used in a crime. The scientists behind the device are already in talks with several industrial manufacturers and an aerospace company to help provide testing for their products.

For the rest of us, it’s another way to get a glimpse at the small beauties out there in the natural world, like the sand dollar’s spines, above.