9th Place Ctenocephalides canis (flea) (20X)

Fluorescence Duane Harland, AgResearch Ltd. Lincoln, New Zealand 8th Place Cacoxenite (mineral) (18X), Reflected light Honorio Cocera-La Parra, Geology Museum, University of Valencia Benetusser, Valencia, Spain 7th Place Endothelial cell attached to synthetic microfibers, stained with microtubules, F-actin and nuclei (2500X), Fluorescence, Confocal Yongli Shan, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, Texas 6th Place Martensia sp. (red seaweed), living specimen (40X), Brightfield John Huisman, Murdoch University, School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia 5th Place Strelitzia reginae (bird of paradise) seed (10X)

Darkfield Viktor Sykora, Institute of Pathophysiology, First Medical Faculty, Charles University Prague, Czech Republic 4th Place Wasp nest (10X), Extended Depth of Field Stereomicroscopy Riccardo Taiariol La Spezia, SP, Italy 3rd Place Zebrafish olfactory bulbs (250X), Confocal Oliver Braubach, Department of Physiology & Biophysics, Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 2nd Place 5-day old zebrafish head (20X), Confocal Dr. Hideo Otsuna, University of Utah Medical Center, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy Salt Lake City, Utah 10th Place Crystallized soy sauce (16X), Reflected and Transmitted Light Yanping Wang, Beijing Planetarium Beijing, China 11th Place Telophase HeLa (cancer) cells expressing Aurora B-EGFP (green) (100X), Deconvolution Paul D. Andrews, University of Dundee Dundee, Scotland, UK 12th Place Juvenile bivalve mollusc, Lima sp. (10X), Darkfield Gregory Rouse, Scripps Institution of Oceanography La Jolla, California 20th Place Crystallized melt of sulfur and acetanilide (10X), Transmitted John Hart, Hart3D Films and Deptartment of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Univ. Colorado, Boulder Boulder, Colorado 19th Place Wistar rat retina outlining the retinal vessel network and associated communication channels (100X), Confocal Cameron Johnson, The University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand 18th Place Soap film (150X), Incident Brightfield Gerd Guenther Düsseldorf, NRW, Germany 17th Place Ichneumon wasp compound eye and antenna base (40X), Reflected (Episcopic) Light Illumination Charles Krebs, Charles Krebs Photography Issaquah, Washington 16th Place Mirabilis jalapa (four o’clock flower) stigma with pollen (100X), Epifluorescence and 3D reconstruction Robert Markus, Institute of Genetics, Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Szeged, Hungary 15th Place Divaricatic acid from Evernia divaricata (lichen), recrystallized from acetone (10X), Polarized light Ralf Wagner Düsseldorf, Germany 14th Place Spiral vessels from banana plant stem (32X), Polarized light Stephen Lowry, University of Ulster Londonderry, UK 13th Place Orange Fungia (mushroom coral), live specimen (166X), Fluorescence James Nicholson, NOAA NOS NCCOS Coral Culture and Collaborative Research Facility Charleston, South Carolina

The subject of this year's top microscope photo in the 36th annual Nikon Small World competition looks more like neon suspension bridges or sailboats than what it really is: mosquito heart muscle magnified 100 times.

The image, which used flourescence technology to highlight different parts of the specimen, stood out as one of the most beautiful of the entries. And it also had scientific merit as part of the photographer's research on how mosquitoes carry and spread disease.

“Mosquitoes remain one of the greatest scourges of mankind," said winner Jonas King of Vanderbilt University in a press release Oct. 13. "And this image of the mosquito heart helps us understand how they transport nutrients, hormones, and even pathogens such as malaria throughout their bodies."

Having been one of the judges of the Nikon Small World competition this year, I know how many truly stunning contenders there were. Selecting the best 20 was quite a challenge. The judges, which included both journalists and scientists, spent an entire day slowly whittling the record 2,200 images down to the best. I am definitely biased, but I think the group we ended up with is the best the contest has ever seen.

The other winning photomicrographs we chose included subjects such as a wasp's nest, the olfactory bulbs of zebra fish, seaweed, soy sauce, cancer cells, sulfur and a rat retina. As you look through them here, see if you can guess what they are before you read the captions.

The top photos were displayed online prior to the announcement today of how they placed so that the public could vote on them. Your top choice was the 40 times magnified image of a female black bean aphid with babies on board (below) by Tomas Cabello of the Universidad of Almería in Spain.

Images: Courtesy of Nikon Small World

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