Wired Science rounds up the winners of the past 35 years' worth of Nikon prizes for excellence in microscopic photography. These are just stunning. Shown here: 2001: Fresh water rotifer feeding among debris (200x), Darkfield. / Harold TaylorKensworth, UK.

35 Years of the World's Best Microscope Photography (Thanks, @timoreilly!)

Previously:

  • candycritic

    Every time I see microscopic photography it takes me a week before I’m comfortable getting wet in any way.

  • winkybb

    When I first saw the shot, I thought it was a microscopic bug set against a backdrop of a Hubble nebula photo. “Cool”, I thought. “Cool”, I still think.

  • TotalForge

    Am I the only one who sees a Hello Kitty head in the bottom half of the organism? It’s kind of zombified. OK, been reading too much Boing. Be back later. :-)

  • Anonymous

    Like a Metroid but at the other end of the digestive tract

  • Blue387

    It reminds me of a horseshoe crab.

  • Jason Rizos

    When I was in the 8th grade I looked through a microscope for the first time, at some pond scum. We weren’t expected to find something so amazing, but I found a multi-celled thing that looked just like this, but it had a long trunk that telescoped, quite literally, in and out and it fed. Mind blown, permanently.

  • Anonymous

    I think we’ve found the point where hubble’s and microscopic photography’s images finally meet. the dalai lama was right- it’s the universe in a single atom!… or cell.. or whatever.

  • InsertFingerHere

    I’m having a very Pink Floyd moment here. 1984 & 1985 are album covers, I’m sure of it!

  • Anonymous

    I thought the crystals of influenza virus was a spectacle of color
    not unlike bizmuth which shows a chromic finish

    sarchi