Microscope photography can take us places we couldn't otherwise go, places we didn't even know existed. But microscope video can bring those places to life. Every year, Nikon holds a photomicrography contest that honors some of the best microscope images you'll ever see. This year, they've added video with their Nikon Small World in Motion competition. The best of more than 200 videos show amazing microscopic activity, including cells dividing, ants feasting and asexual yeast budding. The winning video (above) uses an injection of ink into a 72-hour-old chick embryo to illustrate the blood system. Watch the 2nd and 3rd place videos, along with 11 honorable mentions in this gallery. 1st Place: Chick Ink Injection Into Blood Vessels Anna Franz, Oriel College, Dunn School of Pathology, UK Technique: Reflected light microscopy Magnification: 10x Ink injection into yolk sac artery of 72-hour-old chick embryo to visualize the beating heart and the vasculature.

2nd Place: Transport of Mitochondria Dominic Paquet, German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Germany; The Rockefeller University, USA Technique: Widefield fluorescence Magnification: 40x Time-lapse movie of transport of mitochondria in nerve cells of transgenic zebrafish with nerve cell membranes labeled in green and mitochondria labeled in blue.

3rd Place: Waterflea Ralf Wagner, Germany Technique: Darkfield Magnification: 50x Waterflea (Daphnia) playing with volvox.

Honorable Mention: Micrasterias sp. Jeremy Pickett-Heaps, University of Melbourne, Australia Technique: Time-lapse video microscopy Magnification: Non-dividing cells measure about 170 microns across Desmid dividing.

Honorable Mention: Ellipsoid Egg Development Saori Haigo, University of California, Berkeley; University of California, San Francisco, USA Technique: Live cell imaging of Drosophila egg chambers (3-hour time lapse movie at 5-minute intervals) Magnification: 400X Some animals, including insects and birds, are known to lay ellipsoid eggs, but how does the ellipsoid form during egg development? Using the common fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, developing eggs were dissected out of the female ovary with muscles removed, to watch how elongating eggs behave ex vivo. It turns out that developing eggs undergoing elongation (the two egg chambers in the lower left), spin around its long axis. Green highlights the surface follicle epithelium's cell membranes; red marks all nuclei.

Honorable Mention: The Maw James Nicholson, Coral Collaborative Research Facility, NOS NOAA CEHBR, HML, Ft. Johnson, USA Technique: Epifluorescence with 430 nm excitation showing natural fluorescence in live specimen Magnification: 5x Live specimen of Fungia sp., single polyped stony coral, showing the oral region and surrounding array of septal ridges and tentacles. Visible inside the mouth are the distinct mesenteries, structures involved in digestion and reproduction. The unique color pattern about the oral area is due to tissue pigmentation response to an unidentified stressor.

Honorable Mention: Asexual Budding in the Oligochaete Worm Craig Smith, Insight Photography, USA Technique: Darkfield Magnification: 400x Related to the common earthworm, this image shows the "parent" worm (Aeolosoma hemprichi) and the new worm attached to the posterior end of the parent formed by the process of asexual budding. Craig Smith, Insight Photography, USA Technique: Darkfield Magnification: 400x The image is of a microscopic aquatic rotifer showing the process of the extension and retraction of the corona during feeding.

Honorable Mention: Rotifer With Corona Feeding Craig Smith, Insight Photography, USA Technique: Darkfield Magnification: 400x The image is of a microscopic aquatic rotifer showing the process of the extension and retraction of the corona during feeding.

Honorable Mention: Actin Dynamics in Phagocytosis of Budded Yeast Margaret Clarke, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Program in Genetic Models of Disease, USA Technique: Laser scanning confocal microscopy. A time series was collected in a single focal plane, with images acquired at 4-second intervals. For display, the fluorescence images were superimposed on the greyscale brightfield image. Magnification: 33 microns x 26 microns This movie shows amoebae (D. discoideum) phagocytosing budded yeast (S. cerevisiae). The amoebae are expressing mRFP-LimEdelta (red) to label actin filaments and PHcrac-GFP (green) to label the membrane of the nascent phagocytic cup, which is rich in phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5) trisphosphate. A phagocytic cup often pauses at or returns to the concave curvature at the neck of a budded yeast, and actin accumulates there in an attempt to seal the cup. An unsuccessful attempt may end in retraction of the cup and release of the particle, or the cell may eventually resume extension of the cup and engulf the entire particle. Those two outcomes are shown here. Fluctuations in actin dynamics and cup extension/retraction allow a cell to deal with particles of complex shape.

Honorable Mention: Hydra viridis Charles Krebs, Charles Krebs Photography, USA Technique: Darkfield and DIC Magnification: various from 40X to 600X

Honorable Mention: Arabidopsis Lateral Root Daniel von Wangenheim, Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany Technique: Light sheet-based fluorescence microscopy Magnification: 20x/0.5 W N-ACHROPLAN The video of Arabidopsis thaliana shows a lateral root growing out of the primary root.

Honorable Mention: Drosophila Blood Circulation Robert Markus, Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary; Molecular Biology and Functional Genomics, Stockholm University, Sweden Technique: Fluorescence Magnification: 50x Circulating blood cells of the fruit fly larva (Drosophila melanogaster).

Honorable Mention: Consumption Raul Gonzalez, Raul Gonzalez Studio, Mexico Technique: Time lapse, reflected illumination, stereomicroscopy Magnification: 1x Time lapse (30 frames/second; 1 spf) feeding process from my local ant colony.