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Here are some of our favorite entries among the other photo contest winners.
Stunning stentors
Dr. Igor Siwanowicz, a research scientist at the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Va., won second
place for his vivid composite image of three single-celled microbes called
stentors, sometimes known as “trumpet animalcules” for their horned shape. Their
cilia, tiny hairs used for locomotion and feeding, stick out in contrast to the
black background.
“I’m enamored with invertebrate
morphology; usual evolutionary restraints don’t seem to apply within the realm
of tiny animals, which is evident in the abundance and variety of often
grotesque and utterly alien forms,” Siwanowicz wrote to
the judging committee.
Siwanowicz says stentors are often difficult to see in their full, trumpet-like extended form because they rapidly change shape and contort their bodies. His solution to get the invertebrates to hold still: exposing them to magnesium ions. “Think a relaxing Epsom salt bath,” he says.
An image of three stentors, single-celled microorganisms common in freshwater lakes and streams, won second place in the competition. At 40 times magnification, each component of the cells is artificially stained. Igor Siwanowicz/HHMI
Hi, alligator
In Bhart-Anjan Bhullar’s paleontology and development lab at Yale University, graduate student Daniel Smith Paredes captured an American alligator embryo on day 20 of its development.
Using different immunological stains, Smith Paredes was able to outline nerves (white) and their relationship to developing bone (yellow). He’s studying how a variety of vertebrate body forms arise during development. Like the winning entry, this image, which snagged third place, represents many thousands of individual pictures merged together.
Shown at 10 times magnification, this image of a developing American alligator embryo, which won third place in the contest, is stained to highlight developing bone (yellow) and nerves (white). Daniel Smith Paredes and Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar/Yale University
Say freeze
Caleb Foster, a photographer in Jericho, Vt., snapped this photo of a snowflake on his back porch before it had time to melt. While snowflakes take a wonderful variety of forms, every snowflake has six sides because of how water molecules organize as they freeze.
In the sky, ice crystals begin to form on a tiny speck of floating debris. The crystals then grow into their final configuration, influenced in part by the precise temperature and humidity around them.
All snowflakes have six sides, like this one pictured here at four times magnification. Caleb Foster/Caleb Foster Photography
Baby octopus
Carrie Albertin, a marine biologist at the Marine Biological Laboratory, studies how octopuses and other cephalopods build their strange bodies. She and Martyna Lukoševičiūtė, a scientist at the University of Oxford, submitted this image of a developing octopus embryo. Tiny tentacles, complete with suction cups, protrude from the main body of the creature.
Lukoševičiūtė told the judges that the biggest challenge in taking this photograph was getting the embryo to stay still. She used a specialized microscope slide with small grooves and walls to contain the embryo while she snapped its photo.
This image of a developing octopus was taken at five times magnification, and was artificially stained to visualize different tissues. Martyna Lukoševičiūtė/Univ. of Oxford and Carrie Albertin/MBL
Cherry cuprite
Emilio Carabajal Márquez from Madrid has studied cave insects for more than 25 years, but recently turned his eye toward microminerals found below Earth’s surface. Cuprite is a mineral composed of copper oxide, which gives the crystal a reddish color. This particular crystal may have been formed by lava vaporizing parts of an underground copper deposit.
Cuprite, pictured here at 20 times magnification, is a crystallized mineral composed of copper oxide, which gives the cuprite a reddish color. Emilio Carabajal Márquez
Fly ovaries
Biologists Yujun Chen and Jocelyn McDonald of Kansas State University in Manhattan use fluorescent microscopy to help them understand how groups of cells get to where they need to go during development. In their image, the researchers captured a pair of fruit fly ovaries, stuffed with eggs at different stages of development. Muscle fibers are stained yellow while the nuclei of cells are green. Follicle cells, which support egg development, are outlined in purple.
“This image shows the… beauty of how different stages of egg chambers are packed and developed,” Chen told the judges.
A pair of fruit fly ovaries have been artificially stained and magnified 10 times to highlight the different stages of egg development. Yujun Chen and Jocelyn McDonald/Kansas State University
Pregnant plankton
Take a big gulp of lake water and there’s a pretty good chance you might swallow a daphnia. These tiny freshwater plankton use their featherlike mouthparts to feed on algae or other suspended organic material, and are an integral part of many freshwater ecosystems. Marek Miś, a freelance photographer in Suwalki, Poland, captured this pregnant daphnia.
Daphnia can reproduce asexually, so there’s a
chance that the developing daphnia (green) inside this female are clones of
their mother.
This image of a pregnant female Daphnia , a microscopic invertebrate common in freshwater, was taken using polarized light to highlight the critter’s internal structures. The image is magnified four times. Marek Miś/Marek Miś Photography