Pictures: Best Micro-Photos of 2012

2nd Place: Baby Spiders

Image courtesy Walter Piorkowski, Nikon Small World

This image of newborn lynx spiderlings magnified six times earned Walter Piorkowski of South Beloit, Illinois, second place in the Small World contest.

Lynx spiders don't build webs or nests; they capture their prey by pouncing on them. Some types, like the green lynx, can change their body color to match the surrounding environment, chameleon style.

There were 97 winners in this year's competition, which is sponsored by Nikon and honors light-microscope photographs whose "structure, color, composition, and content is an object of beauty, open to several levels of comprehension and appreciation."

(Related: "Pictures: Best Micro-Photos of 2010.")

Published October 26, 2012

3rd Place: Cancer Cell

Image courtesy Dylan Burnette, Nikon Small World

A cell containing human bone cancer, aka osteosarcoma, is transformed into vibrant abstract art after being enlarged 63 times by Dylan Burnette of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. This image—in which protein filaments are shown in purple, mitochondria in yellow, and DNA in blue—took third place.

Published October 26, 2012

4th Place: Pupal Fruit Fly

Image courtesy W. Ryan Williamson, Nikon Small World

It's not a spaceship. It's the visual system of a pupal fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), magnified 1,500 times. Taken by W. Ryan Williamson of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Ashburn, Virginia, this shot claimed fourth place.

The fly's retina is pictured in brown with small spikes of gold. The photoreceptor axons are a bluish purple, while the brain is green.

As in previous years, the 2012 Small World Microphotography Competition was judged by a panel of journalists and scientists.

Published October 26, 2012

5th Place: Phosphate Closeup

Image courtesy Honorio Cócera-La Parra, Nikon Small World

Cacoxenite is a phosphate mineral that can range in color from yellow to brown to red. The University of Valencia's Honorio Cócera-La Parra magnified this sample—collected from the La Paloma Mine in Valencia, Spain—18 times to capture the fifth-place prize.

Published October 26, 2012

6th Place: Vibrant Algae

Image courtesy Marek Miś, Nikon Small World

Looking more like an extraterrestrial life form than one of Earth's organisms, this algal Cosmarium was magnified a hundred times. By catching the eye with its assortment of vibrant hues, the image won sixth place for Marek Miś of Suwalki, Poland.

The top 20 photos from this year's competition will be exhibited in a U.S. museum tour and a full-color calendar.

Published October 26, 2012

7th Place: Fruit Fly Eye

Image courtesy Michael John Bridge, Nikon Small World

Magnified 60 times, the eye organ of a larval fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is awash in surreal color. This image—which netted seventh place for Michael John Bridge of the University of Utah—was made with a confocal lens. That makes different levels of the organ simultaneously visible.

Published October 26, 2012

8th Place: Sea Gooseberry

Image courtesy Gerd A. Guenther, Nikon Small World

Looking more like a series of scythes, this shot of sea gooseberry larvae (Pleurobrachia)—a type of ctenophore that's 95 percent water—was magnified 500 times by Gerd A. Guenther of Düsseldorf, Germany. It came in eighth place.

Published October 26, 2012

9th Place: Larva-Carrying Ant

Image courtesy Geir Drange, Nikon Small World

Caught in the act of carrying its larva, an ant  in the genus Myrmica—found throughout the Northern Hemisphere—is enlarged five times in this ninth-place entry by Geir Drange of Akser, Norway.

Ant take their larvae in and out of the nest each day in order to regulate their temperature.

Published October 26, 2012

10th Place: Brittle Star

Image courtesy Alvaro Migotto, Nikon Small World

A prickly looking brittle star was magnified eight times—and claimed tenth place—in this shot by Alvaro Migotto of Brazil's University of São Paulo. The marine animal was photographed using a dark-field method, an illumination technique that creates a stark contrast between the specimen and the surrounding area.

Closely related to sea stars, brittle stars vary greatly in color—from red to white, sometimes appearing with banded hues—and are covered in serrated spines.

Published October 26, 2012

Next: Pictures: Best Micro-Photos of 2011

Image courtesy Igor Siwanowicz, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology/Nikon Small World

Published October 26, 2012