Corals 'Kiss' and Wage War, New Underwater Microscope Reveals

The new imaging system — an underwater microscope and computer interface that can be operated by a diver — was developed by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Jaffe Laboratory for Underwater Imaging at the University of California, San Diego. Dubbed the Benthic Underwater Microscope (BUM), it is the first microscope to image the seafloor and its inhabitants at such a small scale. Researchers used the microscope to observe tiny coral polyps in the Red Sea and in Maui.