PHOTOS: Best Microscopic Images of 2008 Announced

PHOTOS: Best Microscopic Photos of 2008 Announced
PHOTOS: Best Microscopic Photos of 2008 Announced
PHOTOS: Best Microscopic Photos of 2008 Announced
PHOTOS: Best Microscopic Photos of 2008 Announced
PHOTOS: Best Microscopic Photos of 2008 Announced
PHOTOS: Best Microscopic Photos of 2008 Announced
PHOTOS: Best Microscopic Photos of 2008 Announced
PHOTOS: Best Microscopic Photos of 2008 Announced
PHOTOS: Best Microscopic Photos of 2008 Announced
PHOTOS: Best Microscopic Photos of 2008 Announced
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PHOTOS: Best Microscopic Photos of 2008 Announced
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Third Place: Flower Power

Albert Tousson of the University of Alabama was recently testing a new laser microscope in his lab and put a petal of a lily of the valley under the lens, which magnified the petal 1,300 times--resulting in his winning photo in the 2008 Small World photomicrography competition.

The enhanced color of the petal's red cell walls and green and yellow starch granules comes from the laser light, which causes molecules within these substances to fluoresce--the same phenomenon that gives objects under black lights an eerie glow.
—Photograph by Albert Tousson/High Resolution Imaging Facility/University of Alabama at Birmingham/photo courtesy of Nikon Small World
 

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