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Chris Supranowitz - a researcher at The Insitute of Optics at the University of Rochester - has decided to take a closer look at the magic grooves from which a record produces the sounds we know and love by sticking them under a state-of-the-art electron microscope. The process is a little more complicated than that however, as there is a lot of preparation necessary including sprinkling the surface of the record with gold-dust. The results are very cool, and we recon this is about as close up as you're ever likely to come to a vinyl.

Compare with CD image:

A gramophone record, commonly known as phonograph record (in American English), vinyl record (when made of polyvinyl chloride), or simply record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near the periphery and ends near the centre of the disc. Phonograph records are generally described by their size ("12-inch", "10-inch", "7-inch", etc.), the rotational speed they are played at ("33", "45", "78", etc.), their time capacity ("Long Playing"), their reproductive accuracy, or "fidelity", or the number of channels of audio provided ("Mono", "Stereo", "Quadraphonic", etc.)

Gramophone records were the primary medium used for commercial music reproduction for most of the 20th century, replacing the phonograph cylinder, with which they had co-existed, by the 1920s. By the late 1980s, digital media had gained a larger market share, and the vinyl record left the mainstream in 1991. However, they continue to be manufactured and sold in the 21st century. The vinyl record regained popularity by 2008, with nearly 2.9 million units shipped that year, the most in any year since 1998. They are used predominantly by young adults, as well as DJs and audiophiles for many types of music. As of 2009, vinyl records continue to be used for distribution of independent and alternative music artists. More mainstream pop releases tend to be mostly sold in compact disc or other digital formats, but have still been released in vinyl in certain instances.

Read more about vinyl records @ Wikipedia .