These exquisite images reveal some of the intricate views of animals and plants captured by researchers from 29 countries who entered the . The prize recognises the best in scientific microscopic imaging worldwide.
The winning entry (pictured above) shows a cross-section of a bloom from the 鈥淐osmic Orange鈥� variety of the Mexican aster (Cosmos sulphureus), with pollen grains maturing inside its anthers. It was taken by Igor Siwanowicz, a research neurobiologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia.
Siwanowicz, who collected the flower buds for his shot on a post-lunch walk around the campus pond, said in an announcement about the prize that he chose to enter the image because it 鈥渟hows that the beauty of a common flower that most of us take for granted can extend beyond what we can see with the naked eye鈥�.
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鈥淭he beauty of natural form and design is present on very different scales, sometimes almost in a fractal manner 鈥� as we continue to zoom in, the form may lose familiarity, but also become a new emotional experience,鈥� he said.
The other images shown here all won honourable mentions in the contest for their views of a variety of animals. In the shot second from top, Laurent Formery used vivid stains to highlight the skeleton of a juvenile sea star (Patiria miniata) from the Asterinidae family.
Above is an image of a cuckoo wasp, resplendent in its iridescent colours, captured by Raghuram Annadana, with the image below showing a zebrafish head, taken by Yue Rong Tan.
