We've all seen totally gorgeous microscopy photos before — but there's still something startling about seeing an arresting picture of a beautiful lattice, only to realize it's a set of mutated cells. Or an insect slowly murdering another insect. Or a horrible parasite, feeding off its host. Part of the thrill of microscopic photos is seeing the loveliness in nature's many killers and things we might consider abominations.


So it's especially exciting to look upon some of the winners and runners up in this year's Olympus BioScapes contest. Above is Drosophila ovaries and uterus, photographed by Gunnar Newquist at the University of Nevada. Check out more of our favorites in this gallery, and see the rest at the link. [Olympus BioScapes via Bellevue Reporter]


First Prize: Rotifer Floscularia ringens feeding. Its rapidly beating cilia (hair-like structures) bring water containing food to the rotifer

Technique: Differential interference contrast microscopy

Photographer: Charles Krebs

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James H. Nicholson

NOAA/NOS/NCCOS

Fort Johnson Marine Resources Center

Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Specimen: Live coral Goniastrea sp., known as green brain coral. One full polyp in the center is shown with four surrounding polyps.

Walled corallites are purple.

Technique: Phase contrast illumination


Jan Schmoranzer

Freie University Berlin, Institute for Chemistry and Biochemistry

Berlin, Germany

Specimen: Neuronal culture

Technique: Fluorescence, 6 images stitched at 40x magnification


Dr. Andreas Schmidt-Rhaesa

Zoological Museum, University Hamburg

University of Hamburg, Germany

Specimen: Hymenolepis microstoma, a tapeworm parasite, showing anterior end. Phalloidin staining shows the suckers, pharynx and part of the body-wall musculature.

Technique: Confocal microscopy


Dr. Janet Rollins

College of Mount Saint Vincent

Bronx, New York, USA

Specimen: Drosophila sperm

Technique: Confocal microscopy


Lauren Piedmont

Harvard Medical School

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Specimen: Pine Stem

Technique: Fluorescence


Nathan Pallace

Fountain Hills, Arizona, USA

Specimen: Fluorescent image of Tilia tree


James H. Nicholson

NOAA/NOS/NCCOS, Fort Johnson Marine Resources Center

Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Specimen: Underwater image of live coral Montastraea annularis. Note polyp tissue (green) around the mouth and base of the tentacles and zooxanthellae (red fluorescence from chlorophyll) in the tissue between polyps. Tentacles also are visible.


Dr. Denise Montell

Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biological Chemistry Center for Cell Dynamics

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Specimen: Drosophila ovary

Technique: Confocal microscopy


Dr. Jan Michels

Institute of Zoology

Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

Kiel, Germany

Specimen: Pretarsus of the third leg of a female drone fly (Eristalis tenax), ventral view

Technique: Confocal, autofluorescence, 20x


Madelyn May

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, New York, USA

Specimen: Rat cerebral cortex with astrocytes' (yellow) endfeet wrapping around blood vessels (red). Cell nuclei are cyan.

Technique: Confocal microscopy, spectral imaging with 50 Z-slices


Dr. Dalibor Matýsek

Mining University - Technical University of Ostrava

Ostrava, Czech Republic

Specimen: Sporangium of the slime mold Physarum leucophaeum

Technique: Fluorescence


Dr. Dalibor Matýsek

Mining University - Technical University of Ostrava

Ostrava, Czech Republic

Specimen: Young sporangia of slime mold Arcyria stipata

Technique: Fluorescence


Peter Kinchington

Mooroolbark, Australia

Specimen: European wasp head

Technique: Brightfield, 200 stacked images


Charles Krebs

Issaquah, Washington, USA

Specimen: Mosquito wing. The iridescent colors, a natural phenomenon resulting from the wing structure itself,

are similar to the colors seen in oil films or soap bubbles.

Technique: Darkfield illumination


Dr. Alexis J. Lomakin

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Specimen: Xenopus melanophore, showing microtubules, microtubule plus-ends and nucleus

Technique: Fluorescence, 60x


Dr. Rita Fior

Institute of Molecular Medicine

Lisbon, Portugal

Specimen: Eyes and optic tectum of five-day-old zebrafish larva that has a mutation causing retinal axons to project into the olfactory lobe

Technique: Confocal, 125-slice Z stack, 20x magnification


Dr. Fernan Federici

Department of Plant Sciences

University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Specimen: Corn tissue

Technique: Confocal, 40x objective


Geir Drange

Asker, Norway

Specimen: Two damsel bugs (Nabis sp.) seemingly feeding on an aphid. Background is dried leaf of Norway maple (Acer platanoides). Technique: Focus stack of 120 images


John Dolan

Station Zoologique B.P. 28

Villefranche-sur-Mer, France

Specimen: Marine plankton Petalotricha ampulla with cilia extended

Technique: Differential interference contrast microscopy


Dr. Sandra Dieni

Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology

Albert-Ludwigs University

Freiburg, Germany

Specimen: Immature mouse hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in learning and memory.

Technique: Fluorescent


Mike Crutchley

Pembrokeshire, Wales, United Kingdom

Specimen: Hydroid collected from kelp sample

Technique: Epi-illumination, image stack


Dr. Douglas Clark

San Francisco, California, USA

Specimen: Eupholus weevil, dried thorax scales, stack of 80 images

Technique: Darkfield, 10x magnification


Dr. Frank Abernathy

Jamestown, Ohio, USA

Specimen: Serum arrested Mouse L-1210 cells engaged in spontaneous apoptosis (programmed cell death)

after nutrient depletion and acid hydrolysis

Technique: Phase contrast microscopy, 400x, image scanned and enlarged


Dr. Robert Berdan

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Specimen: Trout alevin (alevin is the second of four stages in the life cycle of a trout, when eggs hatch and the tiny fish begin to emerge)

Technique: Stereomicroscopy, 10x