EXTRAORDINARY MICROSCOPE PHOTOGRAPHS

SEVENTH PLACE - Specimen: Drosophila ovaries and uterus. Technique: Fluorescence.
The Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition winners are currently on display at the New York Hall of Science. This competition, in its ninth year, is a dynamic international photo competition which honors the world's most extraordinary microscope images and videos of biological subjects. The Olympus BioScapes exhibit will be on display through August 31st. You can see the winners and many honorable mentions on the Olympus Bioscapes web site.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: NIH-3T3 connective tissue cells co-transduced with 5 fluorescent proteins. Technique: Confocal microscopy.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: Juvenile live bay scallop Argopecten irradians. The ultimate goal of this research is to help restore scallop populations in Rhode Island. Technique: Stereomicroscopy, 1x magnification.

HONORABLE MENTION -Sporangium of the slime mold Craterium minutum. Technique: Fluorescence.

HONORABLE MENTION -Adult mouse hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in learning and memory. Reactive astroglia (pale yellow) have proliferated and enlarged in response to neuronal activity over time. Technique: Confocal microscopy, Z-stack of 7 slices.

HONORABLE MENTION -Forewing (elytron) of the green tiger beetle. (Cicindela campestris) Technique: Reflected light microscopy.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: Neuronal culture. Technique: Fluorescence, 6 images stitched at 40x magnification.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: Damselfly eye. The image reveals the regular, crystal-like hexagonal lattice of the eye’s elements. Technique: Projection of confocal stack, 20x objective.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: NIH-3T3 connective tissue cells co-transduced with 5 fluorescent proteins. Technique: Confocal microscopy.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: Rat cerebral cortex with astrocytes’ (yellow) endfeet wrapping around blood vessels (red). Cell nuclei are cyan. Technique: Confocal microscopy, spectral imaging with 50 Z-slices.

HONORABLE MENTION -Specimen: Pretarsus of the third leg of a female drone fly (Eristalis tenax), ventral view. Technique: Confocal, autofluorescence, 20x.

NINTH PLACE - Specimen: Living diatom Mediopyxis helysia, showing the cell nuclei and golden chloroplasts. Technique: Brightfield.

HONORABLE MENTION - Specimen: Cross section of a cat tooth showing membrane surrounding the outside of tooth. Technique: Darkfield illumination, 25x magnification. Image composed of 38 images.

HONORABLE MENTION - Specimen: Neuronal culture. Technique: Fluorescence, 6 images stitched at 40x magnification.

HONORABLE MENTION - Specimen: Serum arrested Mouse L-1210 cells engaged in spontaneous apoptosis (programmed cell death) after nutrient depletion and acid hydrolysis. Technique: Phase contrast microscopy, 400x, image scanned and enlarged.

TENTH PLACE - Specimen: Spherical colonies of Nostoc commune, a bluegreen alga.Technique: Darkfield illumination.

FIRST PLACE - Specimen: Rotifer Floscularia ringens feeding. Its rapidly beating cilia (hair-like structures) bring water-containing food to the rotifer. Technique: Differential interference contrast microscopy.

SIXTH PLACE - Specimen: Stinkbug eggs. Technique: Brightfield illumination.

FIFTH PLACE - Specimen: Live coral Goniastrea sp., known as green brain coral. One full polyp in the center is shown with four surrounding polyps. Walled corallites are purple. Technique: Phase contrast illumination.