1st Place: Green Lacewing This year's top honors of Nikon's Small World Photomicrography Competition went to Dr. Igor Siwanowicz's microphotograph. He took a picture of a green lacewing. Dr. Igor Siwanowicz Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology Martinsried, Germany Portrait of a Chrysopa sp. (green lacewing) larva (20x)
2nd Place: Blade of Grass Dr. Donna Stolz University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Confocal stack reconstruction, Autofluorescence
3rd Place: Melosira Moniliformis Frank Fox Fachhochschule Trier Trier, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany living specimen Differential Interference Contrast
4th Place: Liverwort Dr. Robin Young The University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Intrinsic fluorescence in Lepidozia reptans Live mount, Confocal microscopy
5th Place: Microchip Surface Alfred Pasieka Germany 3D reconstruction Incident light, Normarski Interference Contrast
6th Place: Cracked gallium arsenide solar cell films Dennis Callahan California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California, USA Brightfield
7th Place: Retinal flatmount of mouse nerve fiber layer Gabriel Luna UC Santa Barbara, Neuroscience Research Institute Santa Barbara, California, USA Laser Confocal Scanning
8th Place: Granulite Dr. Bernardo Cesare Department of Geosciences Padova, Italy Graphite-bearing granulite from Kerala (India) Polarized light
9th Place: Marine Copepod Dr. Jan Michels Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel Kiel, Germany Temora longicornis, ventral view Confocal, Autofluorescence and Congo Red Fluorescence
10th Place: Freshwater Water Flea Joan Röhl Institute for Biochemistry and Biology Potsdam, Germany Differential Interference Contrast
11th Place: Ant Head Dr. Jan Michels Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel Kiel, Germany Confocal, autofluorescence
12th Place: Cancer Cells Thomas Deerinck National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research La Jolla, California, USA 2-Photon fluorescence
13th Place: Montana Diatoms Dr. Stephen S. Nagy Helena, Montana, USA Curare vine in cross-section, Chondrodendron tomentosum Brightfield, digitally inverted
14th Place: Sand Yanping Wang Beijing Planetarium Beijing, China Reflected light
15th Place: Lobe Coral James H. Nicholson Coral Culture and Collaborative Research Facility, NOAA/NOS/NCCOS/CCEHBR & HML Charleston, South Carolina, USA Live specimen displaying tissue pigmentation response with red fluorescence Epifluorescence with triple band (U/B/G) excitation
16th Place: Cultured cells growing on a bio-polymer scaffold Dr. Christopher Guérin VIB (Flanders Institute of Biotechnology) Ghent, Belgium Confocal
17th Place: Filaria worms inside lymphatic vessels of the mouse ear Dr. Witold Kilarski EPFL-Laboratory of Lymphatic and Cancer Bioengineering Lausanne, Switzerland Fluorescent confocal microscopy
18th Place: Aspen Leaf Benjamin Blonder, David Elliott University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona, USA Brightfield image of safranin-stained tissue
19th Place: Mammalian Cell Collage Dr. Donna Stolz The University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Single slice confocal cell mosaic
20th Place: Agatized Dinosaur Bone Cells Douglas Moore University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA ca. 150 million years old Stereomicroscopy
SEE MORE AMAZING PHOTOS: Life in a Drop of Water
SEE LAST YEAR'S WINNERS: Nikon Small World Competition 2010
