Fascinating Photomicrographs

Nikon’s “Small World” is an international photomicrography competition. A photomicrograph (or micrograph) is an image that is taken through a microscope, and Small World has been celebrating the professional researchers and the part-time hobbyists who have dedicated their time to taking these amazingly minuscule photos. The competition is in 36th year now and Nikon has just released its 2010 winners list.

The top prize in photomicroscopy went to Mr Jonas King at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, USA who photographed a mosquito’s heart at 100x magnification. The vibrant photograph is created using a technique that tags a specific part of the subject with fluorescent molecules, and when the subject is illuminated with light of a certain colour, the fluorescent molecules emit a color that is different to light that was previously absorbed. The result is seen below.

See the top five Small World photomicrographs after the jump.

2. Dr Hideo Otsuna – 5-day old Zebrafish head (20x magnification)

3. Oliver Braubach – Zebrafish olfactory bulbs (250x magnification)

4. Riccardo Taiariol – Wasp nest (100x magnification)

5. Viktor Sykora – Strelitzia reginae (bird of paradise) seed (10x magnification)

And here are some more images that I found particularly striking.

Dr. Alvaro Migotto – (starfish) embryo, four cell stage (60x magnification)

Dr. Juan Carlos Izpisúa – mouse embryo stem cells (63c magnification)

Raymond Sloss – Radiolarian protozoa (250x magnification)

Christian Gautier – toad ova injected, mounted in lacto-phenol (50x magnification)

Jerzy Gubernator – air bubble in Carbopol gel sample (300x magnification)

See many more of these fascinating photomicrographs at Nikon Small World.

[via Popular Science]