This is the eye of a honey bee peppered with dandelion pollen, magnified at 120x.
The image, by Ralph Grimm, won Nikon’s Small World 2015 Photomicrography Competition.
“In a way I feel as though this gives us a glimpse of the world through the eye of a bee,” says Grimm. “It’s a subject of great sculptural beauty, but also a warning- that we should stay connected to our planet, listen to the little creatures like bees, and find a way to protect the earth that we all call home.”
Below, the second, third, fourth, and fifth place winners.
Kristen Earle, Gabriel Billings, KC Huang & Justin Sonnenburg’s “Mouse colon colonized with human microbiota (63x):”
Dr. Igor Siwanowicz’s “Intake of a humped bladderwort (Utricularia gibba), a freshwater carnivorous plant (100x):”
Daniel H. Miller & Ethan S. Sokol’s “Lab-grown human mammary gland organoid (100x):”
Dr. Giorgio Seano & Dr. Rakesh J. Jain’s “Live imaging of perfused vasculature in a mouse brain with glioblastoma:”
