
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
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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
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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