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Butterfly egg

Weird Science

Nikon photo contest reveals fantastic microscopic world that surrounds us

Tour psychedelic cellular landscapes, face off with a jumping spider, and more amazing views through the lens of a microscope.

/ 16 PHOTOS
Madagascar giant day gecko

First place

Each year, art and science collide in the Nikon Small World photo contest to produce breathtaking (and sometimes unnerving) microscopic images.

This year's first place prize was awarded to Grigorii Timin, supervised by Dr. Michel Milinkovitch at the University of Geneva, for his image of an embryonic hand of a Madagascar giant day gecko.

Timin used image stitching to merge hundreds of images together to create the final image. "The scan consists of 300 tiles, each containing about 250 optical sections, resulting in more than two days of acquisition and approximately 200 GB of data," said Timin.

Grigorii Timin & Dr. Michel Milinkovitch / University of Geneva
breast tissue showing contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk producing alveoli.

Second place

Second place was awarded to Dr. Caleb Dawson for his image of breast tissue showing contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk-producing alveoli. Taking a week to process, the myoepithelial cells were stained with multiple rounds of fluorescent dyes and captured with a confocal microscope.

Dr. Caleb Dawson / WEHI, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
blood vessel networks in the intestine of an adult mouse

Third place

Third place was captured by Satu Paavonsalo and Dr. Sinem Karaman for their image of blood vessel networks in the intestine of an adult mouse.

Scroll through to see more of the winners in this year's contest. 

Satu Paavonsalo & Dr. Sinem Karaman / University of Helsinki
Red speckled jewel beetle (Chrysochroa buqueti rugicollis).

Beetle

Red speckled jewel beetle (Chrysochroa buqueti rugicollis).

Yousef Al Habshi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Slime mold (Lamproderma).

Slime mold

Lamproderma is a genus of slime mold. 

Slime molds were once thought to be a kind of fungus, but later work revealed that these puddles of goo are part of a motley group of microbes known as protists.

Alison K. Pollack, San Anselmo, Calif.
A fly under the chin of a tiger beetle.

Beetle captures fly

A fly under the chin of a tiger beetle. 

Murat Ozturk, Ankara, Turkey
Moth eggs

Egg stack

Moth eggs. 

This year, the photo competition received almost 1,300 entries from 72 countries.

Zhang Ye Fei, China
Bold jumping spider (Phidippus audax)

Bold jumping spider

Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that actively hunts its prey rather than trapping it in webs. Like most spiders, they have four pairs of eyes.

Dr. Andrew Posselt / UCSF
Butterfly egg

Butterfly egg

2022 marks the photo competition’s 48th year.

 

Zhang Ye Fei, China
Growing tip of a red algae

Red algae

Growing tip of a red algae.

Dr. Nathanael Prunet / University of North Carolina
daddy long-legs spider

Daddy longlegs

Daddy longlegs (Pholcus phalangioideshave been skittering around the Earth for more than 300 million years.

 

Dr. Andrew Posselt / UCSF
Cross sections of normal human colon epithelial crypts.

Colon close-up

Cross sections of normal human colon epithelial crypts.

Dr. Ziad El-Zaatari / Houston Methodist Hospital
Midge larva collected from a freshwater pond

Pond dweller

Midge larva collected from a freshwater pond.
Karl Gaff, Dublin
asparagus

Asparagus

Longitudinal section through a white asparagus shoot tip.

Dr. Olivier Leroux / Ghent University
Stinger of a small paper wasp (Vespidae Protopolybia)

Wasp stinger

Stinger of a small paper wasp (Vespidae Protopolybia).

 

Unlike bees, wasps can sting multiple times because they don't leave their stinger behind.

Pablo Piedra, Costa Rica
Ant (Camponotus)

Face of an ant

Close-up of an ant (Camponotus).

See last year's winners

Eugenijus Kavaliauskas, Lithuania
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