The iPhone is a beautiful machine with amazingly clean lines and smooth surfaces. But how does an iPhone that's suffered the normal daily wear and tear hold up...under a $30,000 optical microscope? Not so bad, actually. And its frosted metal back casing looks just wicked.

These shots are pretty and all, but for the true iPhone enthusiasts, a $250,000 scanning electron microscope reveals even more:

Specifically the results of X-ray diffraction spectroscopy can tell us the elements that comprise each piece of the iPhone.

1. The screen is not made of rumored sapphire crystal, but glass.
2. The bezel is made of chrome plated steel.
3. The rear is made of anodized aluminum.

We're not sure if the ends (confirmation of pretty basic composition info) justify the means (using badass, crazy expensive microscopes)...but if there's ever been a method in which the means justify the means, this is it. [iPhone Custom and gen[m]ay]

Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.