Every year, Nikon gives awards to the people behind the best microphotographs of the year. The winners come from academia, research-based corporations, and photo agencies. Here are the 20 finalists from the 2007 contest, starting with the winning picture: a 17-times magnified view of a double-transgenic mouse embryo by Gloria Kwon of the Memorial-Sloan Kettering Institute in New York.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute
New York, New York
Double transgenic mouse embryo, 18.5 days (17x)
Brightfield, darkfield, fluorescence microscopy (GFP, RFP)
Montana Diatoms
Helena, Montana, USA
Antique microscope slide featuring thin section of diseased ivory (15x)
Polarized light microscopy
Zoology Division
University of Osnabr??ck
Osnabr??ck, Germany
Ophryotrocha diadema (marine worm) embryo, showing nervous
system and cilia (25x)
Confocal microscopy
University of Ulster
Coleraine, Northern Ireland, UK
Coiled radula of Patella vulgaris (mollusk) (20x)
Polarized light microscopy
BIOS/PHONE Photo Agency
Avignon, France
Cedrus atlantica (cedar) leaf crosscut (200x)
Polarized light microscopy
Oswaldo Cruz Foundation
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Trematode sp. (parasitic worm) (400x)
Differential interference contrast microscopy
Oregon Department of Agriculture, Plant Division
Salem, Oregon, USA
Mimetidae sp. (spider) egg case (30x)
Stereomicroscopy
Bridgewater State College
Bridgewater, Massachusetts, USA
Kaleidofly of a Halloween Pennant (dragonfly) (1x)
Stereomicroscopy
Natural Resources Canada
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Amisega floridensis (parasitic wasp) (90x)
Stereomicroscopy
Institute of Pathophysiology, First Medical Faculty
Charles University
Prague, Czech Republic
Epilobium parviflorum (small-flowered willowherb) seeds (10x)
Stereomicroscopy, darkfield
Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory
National University of Singapore
Kent Ridge, Singapore
Zebrafish embryo midbrain and diencephalon (20x)
Confocal microscopy
Portland, Oregon, USA
Clione sp. (planktonic mollusk) larva (40x)
Differential interference contrast microscopy
Micropolitan Museum
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Testudinella patina (a rotifer) (400x)
Differential interference contrast microscopy
Charles Krebs Photography
Issaquah, Washington, USA
Marine diatoms attached to Polysiphonia (red algae) (100x)
Differential interference contrast microscopy
Imagequestmarine.com
Witney, Oxon, UK
Sea water with mixed zooplankton and needle eye (20x)
Reflected light microscopy
Charles Krebs Photography
Issaquah, Washington, USA
Hydrophilidae sp. (water scavenger beetle) larva (100x)
Brightfield microscopy with crossed polarization
MCD Biology
University of Colorado at Boulder
Boulder, Colorado, USA
Xenopus (frog) embryos (20x)
Stereomicroscopy
Department of Zoology
University of Osnabruck
Osnabruck, Germany
Erpobdella octoculata (fresh water leech) (25x)
Confocal microscopy
Ramat Gan, Israel
Papaver subpiriforme (corn poppies) flower bud (20x)
Fiber-optic illumination microscopy
