“Usually, we shrink images to fit on a postage stamp. In this case, we have enlarged the images to postage-stamp size—that doesn’t happen often,” said Luke Grossmann, senior vice president of finance and strategy for the Postal Service.

These stamps are gorgeous! But they are not works of art per se; they were created for science. But by incorporating aesthetic appeal into the ways they present their research, the scientists behind these stamps have created images equally suited for a gallery wall as for a scientific journal.

The images taken of parts of the natural world that is so small that we cannot perceive it with our eyes alone. Microscopes and specialised photographic techniques are used to capture details of red blood cells, the feather of a macaw, a knotted strand of human hair, moss leaves, diatom shells, freshwater protozoans, an acorn barnacle, a moth’s antenna, the front foot of a diving beetle, neurons from a mouse’s brain, bone tissue from a starling, scales on the wing of a Madagascan sunset moth, a juvenile zebrafish, mushroom gills, the tongue of a freshwater snail, a blue button (similar to a jellyfish), mould spores, the legs of a barnacle, flame lily pollen, and the surface of a southern live oak leaf.

These "The Life Magnified" stamps are issued in panes of 20. Learn more at the USPS site.

I’ve managed to find them on eBay where the seller can ship to the UK for a reasonable price, though I must wait a month to receive them here in London!