10 JAW-DROPPING IMAGES CAPTURING THE BEAUTY OF LIFE THROUGH A MICROSCOPE

Pictures: Capturing the Beauty of Life Through a Microscope
By National Geographic News, 24 December 2012.

Tiny claws and single-celled algae are among the top images in the 2012 Olympus BioScapes Microscopic Life Photo Contest.

1. Hairy Currents

This image of colonial rotifers - microscopic invertebrates often found in pond water - is actually a still picture from the first video ever to garner top honours in the 2012 Olympus BioScapes Imaging Competition.

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Ralph Grimm, a teacher from Australia, filmed the tiny animals’ madly beating cilia, or small hairs, to win $5,000 worth of Olympus equipment. The rotifers use their cilia to create water currents that draw in food.

(Related: “How to Survive Without Sex for 50 Million Years? Dry Up.”)

2. Golden Moment

Branching red algae (brown) show off their reproductive spores (red), while golden diatoms - another kind of microscopic algae - cluster together like brightly coloured leaves. This picture, taken by Arlene Wechezak of Washington, won second place. (Related: “Source of Half of Earth’s Oxygen Gets Little Credit.”)

3. Funky Fern

A psychedelic image captures the reproductive structures, or spores, of a common U.S. East Coast fern, Polypodium virginianum. This photo took third place, adding to the record number of prizes won by photographer Igor Siwanowicz of Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His four other entries are honourable mentions, for a total of five awards. (Related: “Ferns of Rocky Mountain National Park.”)

4. The Claw

Despite its fearsome appearance, this wicked-looking claw belongs to a group of tiny crustaceans called amphipods. Female members of the genus Phronima attack gelatinous ocean creatures called salps, eating their flesh and leaving a barrel-shaped outer structure. The female amphipods then crawl inside and lay their eggs.

This fourth place winner, taken by Christian Sardet of France and Sharif Mirshak from Canada, has also captured clusters of pigment cells (brownish red) and muscles (white). (Related: “Deep-Sea, Shrimp-Like Creatures Survive by Eating Wood.”)

5. Going Green

This single-celled green diatom won Rogelio Moreno Gill of Panama fifth place in the BioScapes Imaging Competition. Although many diatoms are found in the oceans, they inhabit freshwater too. Specimens for this composite image came from a lake.

6. Open Wide

This is what a mushroom coral looks like as it says “ah.” Known to prey on jellies, many mushroom coral species live solitary lives, unlike their colonial brethren. James Nicholson of South Carolina took sixth place with this extreme close-up of the coral’s mouth as it opened. (See more coral photos.)

7. Brains

Researchers Christian Klämbt and Imke Schmidt of Germany won seventh place with an image of a fruit fly larva’s brain. Eye imaginal discs - clusters of cells that will form the eyes in the adult - are visible at the top of the picture. (Related: “Fruit Flies Highlight Aerodynamics of Insect Flight.”)

8. Deadnettle

Edwin Lee of Texas took eighth place with an image of the male reproductive organs - stamens, anthers, and filaments - of an annual plant called henbit deadnettle (Lamium amplexicaule). This member of the mint family is native to Europe and the Mediterranean and is considered an invasive species in the U.S.

9. Blossoming

This composite image of a Delphinium seed won Sahar Khodaverdi of Iran ninth place in the BioScapes Imaging Competition. Otherwise known as larkspur, these plants are highly toxic and are responsible for many livestock losses in the U.S.

10. Small Scale Beauty

The scales covering the wings of this prola beauty butterfly (Panacea prola) reflect the light, producing this dazzling display of colour. Charles Krebs of Washington State won tenth place in the BioScapes Imaging Competition with this image. (See more pictures of butterflies.)

Top image: Rotifers feeding. Screen capture from video.

[Source: National Geographic News. Edited. Top image and video added.]