30 Images Of Life Under A Microscope

  • Part of the front foot of a giant diving beetle at 100x magnification.
    Dr. Igor Siwanowicz
    1 of 30
  • A leg of a hoverfly at 20x magnification.
    Dr. Jan Michels
    2 of 30
  • A beetle head seen with confocal microscopy.
    Dr. Joseph Parker
    3 of 30
  • Barnacle appendages at 100x magnification.
    Dr. Igor Siwanowicz
    4 of 30
  • Weevils seen with stereo microscopy.
    Dr. Csaba Pintér
    5 of 30
  • A green cone-headed planthopper at 200x magnification.
    Dr. Igor Siwanowicz
    6 of 30
  • A horsetail stem stained white.
    Olivier Leroux
    7 of 30
  • Worm larva at 10x magnification.
    Dr. David Johnston
    8 of 30
  • A butter daisy at 2x magnification.
    Oleksandr Holovachov
    9 of 30
  • A probiscis of a vampire moth at 10x magnification.
    Dr. Matthew S. Lehnert; Ashley L. Lash
    10 of 30
  • Paramecium
    Arturo Agostino
    11 of 30
  • A louse fly with its eggs
    Yousef Al Habshi
    12 of 30
  • A kidney showing microvasculature.
    Ruben Sandoval
    13 of 30
  • A spurge flower showing five nectaries.
    Dr. Somayeh Naghiloo
    14 of 30
  • A retina.
    Thomas Deerinck
    15 of 30
  • A mosquito larva at 100x magnification.
    Charles Krebs
    16 of 30
  • A diatom at 500x magnification.
    Robert Lavigne
    17 of 30
  • Bamboo seen with a 3D projection of a z-stack of confocal images.
    Fernan Federici
    18 of 30
  • A dandelion at 10x magnification.
    Thomas Deerinck
    19 of 30
  • A spore cluster known as Polypodium aureum.
    Anatoly Mikhaltsov
    20 of 30
  • A Rat brain cerebellum at 300x magnification.
    Thomas Deerinck
    21 of 30
  • Micri algae showing chloroplasts.
    Rogelio Moreno Gill
    22 of 30
  • A geranium wildflower.
    Karl Gaff
    23 of 30
  • Two mosquito pupae.
    Jerzy Rojkowski
    24 of 30
  • A liverwort at 125x magnification.
    Magdalena Turzańska
    25 of 30
  • Sections of a leaf from an orchardgrass.
    Gerd A. Guenther
    26 of 30
  • An earth-boring dung beetle.
    Dr. Helle Juel Martens
    27 of 30
  • Motoneurons in the brain of a mouse at 60x magnification.
    Dr. Katie Matho
    28 of 30
  • The underside of an isopod made seen with fluorescence and image stacking.
    Waldo Nell
    29 of 30
  • A moss specie called Tortula ruralis.
    Dr. Csaba Pintér
    30 of 30
By Alexandra Sifferlin

Some of the world’s most stunning beauties can’t be seen with the naked eye.

Every year, scientists and microscope devotees submit their images and movies of life science objects shot under a microscope to the Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition. Artists from 70 countries send in about 2,500 images to the competition every year to be judged by a panel of experts in the field. Here are this year’s honorees.

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