Nikon's annual Small World Photomicrography Competition has announced its winners for 2021! This is the 47th year for the competition, with first place going to Jason Kirk of the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas for the image you see above.
This year’s first place prize was awarded to Jason Kirk for his striking image of a southern live oak leaf’s trichomes, stomata and vessels. Using various lighting techniques and design tools, Jason’s final image is a masterful example of the dynamic relationship between imaging technology and artistic creativity. Using a custom-made microscope system that combines color filtered transmitted light with diffused reflected light, Jason captured around 200 individual images of the leaf and stacked them together to create the stunning image.
Second place went to Esmeralda Paric and Holly Stefen of Macquarie University in Australia for this image of 300,000 or so networking neurons.
Frank Reiser of Nassau Community College in New York won third place for this picture of a rear leg and trachea of a louse.
See the top 20 images in this gallery, and click on each to read more about them. See more in the honorable mentions gallery.
-via Metafilter