PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008

PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008
PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008
PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008
PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008
PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008
PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008
PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008
PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008
PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008
PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008
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PHOTOS: Best Pictures of Microscopic Life, 2008
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Second Prize: Petrified to Perfection

It may look like a close-up of a distant planet's landscape (such as these). But Minnesotan Thomas Shearer's second-place photograph in the 2008 BioScapes contest captures not far-flung realms of space but rather of time.

Shearer's image of petrified wood shows the paths that reddish, iron oxide-tainted minerals and black, carbon-tainted minerals followed millions of years ago as they settled into spaces where a tree's cells once were.
—Picture by Thomas Shearer, courtesy 2008 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition
 

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50 Drives of a Lifetime

National Geographic Traveler has scoured the globe for the world's most beautiful, interesting, and off-beat road trips. Dive in to get drive directions, quizzes, photos, and more.