A new method of obtaining images from biological specimens is presented. It is based on the fact that the molecular anisotropy of the object can be exploited by using polarized incident light. If a difference image of the object is obtained by using two orthogonal polarizations, the resulting image is found to be a bi-dimensional mapping of the object’s amsotropy. A prototype of a microscope capable of generating these differential images has been constructed and the results as applied to the study of sickled red blood cells are presented. Future applications and the potentialities of this novel technique are discussed. © 1985, Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved.