The 20 best works from the Nikon Small World Micrography Competition 2018

Nikon has announced the winners of the annual micrography competition. This year, the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition was held for the 44th time. The first place was taken by a photographer from the Arab Emirates, Youssef Al-Habshi, who took a photo of the eye of the beetle Metapocyrtus subquadrulifer with a 20-fold magnification.Source: Daily Mail

1st place: eye of the beetle Metapocyrtus subquadrulifer, 20x magnification. Photographer — Youssef Al-Habshi, Abu Dhabi, UAEThe image was made using the reflected light technique and is a compilation of 128 microphotographs.

2nd place: fern sorus (structures producing and containing spores), 10-fold increase. Photographer — Rogelio Moreno, PanamaThe picture was taken using focal stacking and autofluorescence, for which sorus was illuminated with ultraviolet light.

Each color represents a different stage of maturity of the sporangia within the sorus.

3rd place: cicada pupa Spittlebug in her bubble house, 5x magnification. Photographer — Saulius Gugis, Naperville, Illinois, USAThe photo was taken using the technique of focal stacking.

4th place: peacock feather, 5x magnification. Photographer — Kan Tunser, Turkey5th place: spider embryo Parasteatoda tepidariorum, 20-fold magnification.

Photographer — Tessa Montague, Harvard University, USAThe surface of the embryo is pink, the cell nuclei are blue, and the intracellular microtubules are green.

6th place: foveola (central area of the retina) of the primate, 40-fold magnification. Photographer — Hanen Habu, Institute of Vision, Therapeutic Department, Paris, France7th place: human tear drop, 5-fold magnification.

Photographer — Norm Barker, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA8th place: mango weevil.

Photographer — Pia Scanlon, Government of Western Australia, Ministry of Primary Industry and Regional Development9th place: security hologram, 10x magnification.

Photographer — Haris Antonopoulos, Greece10th place: stems with pollen grains, 3-fold increase.

Photographer — Csaba Pinter, University of Pannonia, Hungary11th place: human fibroblast in the process of cell division, 60-fold increase.

Photographers — Nilay Taneja and Dylan Burnett, Vanderbilt University, USAThe globular protein actin is brown, the fibrillar protein myosin II is dark green, and DNA is bright pink.

12th place: butterfly wing, 20x magnification. Photographer — Luciano Andres Rihino, Ramos-Mejia, Argentina13th place: Balanus glandula (gastric shell), 5-fold increase.

Photographer — Charles Krebs, Washington, USA14th place: African green monkey cage (COS-7), 100-fold magnification.

Photographers — Andrew Moore and Erica Holzbauer, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Physiology15th place: parasitic mite Varroa destructor, using a honey bee as a host, 1-fold increase.

Photographer — Antoine Frank, CIRAD Agricultural Research Institute, Saint Pierre Island16th place: mouse vascular network, 10-fold magnification.

Photographer — Amanda Phillips-Izaguerre, Salk Institute for Biological Research, USA17th place: breast tissue during lactation, 63-fold increase.

Photographer — Caleb Dawson, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Department of Stem Cells and Cancer, Melbourne, AustraliaThe spheres filled with milk are colored red, they are surrounded by tiny muscle cells that squeeze milk (yellow) and immune cells that control infection (blue).

18th place: amino acid crystals (L-glutamine and beta-alanine), 4-fold increase. Photographer — Justin Zoll, Ithaca, New York, USA19th place: Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) with venom on the sting, 6.3-fold increase.

Photographer — Pierre Anket, Ariege, France20th place: human retina, 40x magnification.

Photographers — Nicolas Cuenca and Isabel Ortuño-Lizaran, University of Alicante, Spain