Best Microscope Photos From 2011 Nikon Small World Contest

A <i>photomicrograph</i> is a technical document that can be of great significance to science. A one is also an object of beauty, open to several levels of appreciation. And once a year, Nikon celebrates the best of the bunch. Pictured here: a snowflake magnified 4X by Yangping Wang of the Beijing Planetarium. It received an honorable mention. (Yanping Wang/Beijing Planetarium)

<b>1st Place -- Dr. Igor Siwanowicz</b> <i>Portrait of a green lacewing larva</i> Technique: Confocal, magnified 20X (Dr. Igor Siwanowicz/Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology)

<b>2nd Place -- Dr. Donna Stolz</b> <i>Blade of grass</i> Technique: Confocal stack reconstruction, autofluorescence, magnified 200X (Dr. Donna Stolz/University of Pittsburgh)

<b>3rd Place -- Frank Fox</b> <i>Melosira monoliformis (living specimen)</i> Technique: Differential interference contrast, magnified 320X (Frank Fox/Fachochschule Trier)

<b>4th Place -- Dr. Robin Young</b> <i>Liverwort</i> Technique: Live mount, confocal microscopy, magnified 20X (Dr. Robin Young/University of British Columbia)

<b>5th Place -- Alfred Pasieka</b> <i>3D reconstruction of a microchip</i> Technique: Incident light, Normarski interference contrast, magnified 500X (Alfred Pasieka)

<b>6th Place -- Dennis Callahan</b> <i>Cracked solar cell films</i> Technique: Brightfield, magnified 50X (Dennis Callahan/California Institute of Technology)

<b>7th Place -- Gabriel Luna</b> <i>Nerve fibers from the retina of a mouse</i> Technique: Laser confocal scanning, magnified 40X (Gabriel Luna/UC Santa Barbara, Neuroscience Research Institute)

<b>8th Place -- Dr. Bernardo Cesare</b> <i>Coarse-grained rocks bearing graphite</i> Technique: Polarized light, magnified 2.5X (Dr. Bernardo Cesare/Department of Geosciences)

<b>9th Place -- Dr. Jan Michels</b> <i>The underbelly of a marine copepod</i> Technique: Confocal, autofluorescence and congo red fluorescence, magnified 10X (Dr. Jan Michels/Christian-Albrechts-Unversitat zu Kiel)

<b>10th Place -- Joan Rohl</b> <i>Freshwater water flea</i> Technique: Differential interference contrast, magnified 100X (Joan Rohl/Institute for Biochemistry and Biology)

<b>11th Place -- Dr. Jan Michels</b> <i>Front view of an ant head</i> Technique: Confocal, autofluorescence, magnified 10X (Dr. Jan Michels/Christian-Albrechts-Universitat zu Kiel)

<b>12th Place -- Thomas Deerinck</b> <i>"Immortal" cancer (HeLa) cells</i> Technique: 2-Photon fluorescence, magnified 300X (Thomas Deerinck/National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research)

<b>13th Place -- Dr. Stephen S. Nagy</b> <i>A cross-section of a curare vine </i> Technique: Brightfield, digitally inverted, magnified 45X (Dr. Stephen S. Nagy/Montana Diatoms)

<b>14th Place -- Yanping Wang</b> <i>Various grains of sand</i> Technique: Reflected light, magnified 4X (Yanping Wang/Beijing Planetarium)

<b>15th -- James H. Nicholson</b> <i>A live specimen of lobe coral, its tissue pigmented with red fluorescence</i> Technique: Epiflurescence with triple band (U/B/G) excitation, magnified 12X (JAmes H. Nicholson/Coral Culture and Collborative Research Facility, NOAA/NOS/NCCOS/CCEHBR & HML)

<b>16th Place -- Dr. Christopher Guerin</b> <i>Cultured cells</i> Technique: Confocal, magnified 63X (Dr. Christopher Guerin/VIB (Flanders Institute of Biotechnology))

<b>17th Place -- Dr. Witold Kilarski</b> <i>Filaria worms inside the ear of a mouse</i> Technique: Fluorescent confocal microscopy, magnified 150X (Dr. Witold Kilarski/EPFL-Laboratory of Lymphatic and Cancer Bioengineering)

<b>18th Place -- Banjamin Blonder, David Elliot</b> <i>The venation network of a young quaking aspen leaf</i> Technique: Brightfield image of safranin-stained tissue, magnified 4X (Benjamin Blonder, David Elliot/University of Arizona)

<b>19th Place -- Dr. Donna Stolz</b> <i>A collage of mammalian cells stained for various proteins and organelles, assembled into the shape of a wreath</i> Technique: Single slice confocal cell mosaic, magnified 200-2000X (Dr. Donna Stolz/University of Pittsburgh)

<b>20th Place -- Douglas Moore</b> <i>Dinosaur bone cells, unpolished and over 150 million years old</i> Technique: Stereomicroscopy, fiber optics, magnified 42X (Douglas Moore/University of Wisconsin)