Electron micrographs are produced by accelerating a beam of electrons through a thin slice of tissue, then detecting the incident electrons on a fluorescent screen. Transmission electron microscopy, or TEM, enables biologists to visualize cells' inner workings—with features smaller than the wavelength of light—in much greater detail than what can be seen with visible light.

The preparation of samples and the process of imaging requires exceptional skill. Sections smaller than one-ten-thousandth of a millimeter are sliced using a glass knife, then carefully stained with a heavy metal such as Uranium. Capturing an image is accomplished by focusing the high voltage electron beam with magnetic lenses to pass through the sample without destroying it.

Electrons do not have color the way light does, so the signal is only interpreted as intensity, rendered in black and white. Because the samples are stained with metals, the shades of grey are relative to the density of metal that accumulated in a specific region, so the tonality of the images does not represent shades of dark and light. It is a technique that is both concrete and dispassionate, yet capable of producing quite abstract images that are open to interpretation.