Researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California–San Diego have designed and constructed an underwater microscope that can depict specific details of coral reefs that they say have never been observed underwater.

The Benthic Underwater Microscope is capable of zooming in on single cells in a marine environment. The instrument has a high magnification lens, a ring of focused LED lights for fast exposures, fluorescence imaging capabilities and a flexible tunable lens, similar to the human eye, to change focus for viewing structures in 3-D.

“With the instrument we’re able to look at individual coral polyps and see their behavior and competition with their corals,” said Andrew Mullen, a graduate student at UC San Diego and co-author of the project. “No one’s been able to look on such a small scale before.”

The microscope is able to examine coral turf wars and “coral polyp kissing.” This is a process that takes place when polyps, the individual organisms attached to the coral, take turns embracing one another in a single colony.

The microscope was created in order to view the ocean at its “appropriate scale,” says Mullen. The microscope makes it possible to examine and image microorganisms in their natural habitat without harming or disturbing them.

“This instrument is a part of a new trend in ocean research to bring the lab to the ocean, instead of bringing the ocean to the lab,” says study co-lead author Tali Treibitz. This is a huge step for researchers, as they've been forced to remove these organisms from their natural aquatic habitats in the past to study them on a microscopic scale.

Check out the video above to learn more.