The Nikon International Small World Competition has just announced its 2019 winners, celebrating the greatest microscopic photos taken by professionals and amateurs alike.
The 2019 Photomicrography Competition, one of two competitions in the Small World affair, captures moments we could never see with the naked eye, nor comprehend. To capture these moments is by no means easy, with a lot of the images being achieved with cutting edge tech by leading educational institutions.
The competition began in 1975 and has since continued to provide stellar photography as the microscopic technology has improved.
Here are the top 20 pictures according to the official judges:
Fluorescent turtle embryo (5x zoom)
Depth-color coded projections of three stentors (single-cell freshwater protozoans) (40x zoom)
Alligator embryo developing nerves and skeleton (10x zoom)
Male mosquito (6.3x zoom)
Snowflake (4x zoom)
Small white hair spider (20x zoom)
Chinese red carnation stamen (3x zoom)
Frozen water droplet (8x zoom)
Tulip bud cross section (1x zoom)
BPAE cells in telophase stage of mitosis (63x zoom)
A pair of ovaries from an adult Drosophila female stained for F-actin (yellow) and nuclei (green); follicle cells are marked by GFP (magenta) (10x zoom)
Mosquito larva (4x zoom)
Cuprite (mineral composed of copper oxide) (20x zoom)
Female Oxyopes dumonti (lynx) spider (1x zoom)
Pregnant Daphnia magna (small planktonic crustacean) (4x zoom)
Housefly compound eye pattern (50x zoom)
Vitamin C (4x zoom)
Cristobalite crystal suspended in its quartz mineral host (40x zoom)
Octopus bimaculoides embryo (5x zoom)
Blood vessels of a murine (mouse) heart following myocardial infarction (heart attack) (2x zoom)
