Spectacular Winning Photos Of The Nikon’s 2023 Small World Competition

Rodent optic nerve head showing astrocytes (yellow), contractile proteins (red) and retinal vasculature (green) by Hassanain Qambari & Jayden Dickson

The Photomicrography Competition has dramatically revealed its champions, with Hassanain Qambari taking the coveted crown for his enchanting rendition of a rodent’s optic nerve head, an image that seemed to dance with the very essence of life.

Born in the creative cauldron of 1975, the Nikon Small World Competition was a dream nurtured to honor the pioneers of light microscope photography. Over the years, it has evolved into a majestic theater curating the amazing masterpieces of photomicrographers from a kaleidoscope of scientific fields. This year, the competition reached a thunderous crescendo, welcoming nearly 1,900 captivating snapshots from 72 nations. It’s more than a contest; it’s a global carnival of microscopic artistry, where the invisible becomes impossibly vivid.

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Matchstick igniting by the friction surface of the box by Ole Bielfeldt

Breast cancer cells by Malgorzata Lisowska

Venomous fangs of a small tarantula by John-Oliver Dum

Auto-fluorescing defensive hairs covering the leaf surface of Eleagnus angustifolia exposed to UV light by Dr. David Maitland

Slime mold (Comatricha nigra) showing capillitial fibers through its translucent peridium by Timothy Boomer

Mouse embryo by Dr. Grigorii Timin & Dr. Michel Milinkovitch

Caffeine crystals by Stefan Eberhard

Cytoskeleton of a dividing myoblast; tubulin (cyan), F-actin (orange) and nucleus (magenta) by Vaibhav Deshmukh

Motor neurons grown in microfluidic device for separation of cell bodies (top) and axons (bottom). Green – microtubules; Red – growth cones (actin) by Melinda Beccari & Dr. Don W. Cleveland

Crystallized sugar syrup by Dr. Diego García

Cuckoo wasp standing on a flower by Sherif Abdallah Ahmed

Blood and lymphatic vasculatures in the ear skin of an adult mouse by Satu Paavonsalo & Dr. Sinem Karaman

Sunflower pollen on an acupuncture needle by John-Oliver Dum

Fluorescent image of an Acropora sp. showing individual polyps with symbiotic zooxanthellae by Dr. Pichaya Lertvilai

Carbon nanotubes by Dr. Diego García

Chinese moon moth (Actias ningpoana) wing scales by Yuan Ji

A cryptocrystalline micrometeorite resting on a #80 testing sieve by Scott Peterson

Stomata in peace lily (Spathiphyllum sp.) leaf epidermis by Marek Miś

Adult transgenic zebrafish head showing blood vessels (blue), lymphatic vessels (yellow), and the skin and scales (magenta) by Daniel Castranova & Dr. Brant M. Weinstein