Photo Gallery It's a Small World

There are a million photography contests out there. But not many of them deal with images of objects normally invisible to the naked eye. SPIEGEL ONLINE shows the winners of this years microscopic photography contest.
1 / 20

First place in this year's Nikon Small World Competition went to Heiti Paves of Estonia. The image shows the anther of a thale cress (arabidopsis thaliana) magnified 20 times. The plants pollinate themselves and reproduce quickly, making them a favorite for genetics researchers.

Foto: Dr. Heiti Paves / University of TechnologyTallinn
2 / 20

Second place, Gerd Günther of Germany. The spiny sow thistle (sonchus asper) can be found in Austria and Germany. This image is part of the plant's flower stem magnified 150 times.

Foto: Gerd A. Guenther / Düsseldorf Germany Sonchus
3 / 20

Third place, Pedro Barrios-Perez of Canada. The image shows a wrinkled photoresist, a light-sensitive material used in a number of industrial processes, such as micro-electronics. The image was magnified 200 times.

Foto: Dr. Pedro Barrios-Perez / Institute for Microstructural Sciences
4 / 20

Fourth place, James Hayden of the US. This image is the result of viewing the ovary of an anglerfish through a special fluorescent microscope. Magnified four times.

Foto: James Hayden
5 / 20

Fifth place, Bruno Vellutini of Brazil. A researcher at the University of Sao Paolo, Vellutini's picture shows a young sea star magnified 40 times.

Foto: Bruno Vellutini / VellutiniCentro de Biologia Marinha Universidade de São Paulo
6 / 20

Sixth place, Havi Sarfaty of Israel. The beautiful pattern created by the scales of a discus fish, and magnified 20 times.

Foto: Dr. Havi Sarfaty / Israel Veterinary Association / Ramat-Gan
7 / 20

Seventh place, Shirley Owens of the US. The image shows trichomes -- tiny hairlike structures -- on a Black-eyed Susan vine. Magnified 450 times.

Foto: Dr. Shirley Owens / Michigan State University
8 / 20

Eigth place, Lloyd Donaldson of New Zealand. Interwoven, dyed cotton fibers makes for an interesting picture, when magnified 200 times and photographed using a fluorescent microscope.

Foto: Dr. Lloyd Donaldso / Donaldson / Scion, Next Generation Biomaterials Rotorua
9 / 20

Ninth place, Bernardo Cesara of Italy. Gabbro is a rock formed when molten magma solidifies beneath the Earth's crust. This image shows the stone containing bits of Olivine, a type of mineral. Magnified five times.

Foto: Dr. Bernardo Cesare / Dipartimento di Geoscienze Università degli Studi di Padova
10 / 20

Tenth place, Arlene Wechezak. Algae can also be quite beautiful, as this image shows. It was magnified 10 times using a standard optical microscope.

Foto: Dr. Arlene Wechezak / Anacortes, Washington
11 / 20

Eleventh place, Dominik Paquet of Germany. Zebra fish are often used in the study of genetic Alzheimer's. In this image, magnified 10 times, the nerve cells are stained green while the Alzheimer's genes are colored blue and red.

Foto: Dominik Paquet / Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München / Adolf Butenandt Institute
12 / 20

Twelfth place, Tsutomu Seimiya of Japan. What does soap look like when it flows off of a slide? Like this, magnified 10 times.

Foto: Dr. Tsutomu Seimiya / Metropolitan UniversityTokyo
13 / 20

Thirteenth place, John Hart of the US. Chemical compounds often look rather strange and beautiful under a microscope. This particular image resulted from the melted and recrystallized mixture of acetanalide, resorcinal and carbon tetrabromide, magnified 33 times.

Foto: Dr. John Hart / Hart 3D Films / Boulder, Colorado
14 / 20

Fourteenth place, Tora Bardal of Norway. A fish eye? Close. Actually, it's a lobster egg, magnified 3.2 times.

Foto: Tora Bardal / Department of Biology / NTNU Center of Fisheries and AquacultureTrondheim
15 / 20

Fifteenth place, Fabrice Parais of France. This alien-looking creature is actually the water larvae of an atherix ibis, a species of fly. The little guy was magnified 25 times.

Foto: Fabrice Parais / DIREN Basse-Normandie
16 / 20

Sixteenth place, Massimo Brizzi of Italy. Poached eggs anyone? In this case, we're talking about snail eggs magnified 200 times.

Foto: Massimo Brizzi / Microcosmo Italia
17 / 20

Seventeenth place, Rebekah R. Helton of the US. A colored stopwatch magnified 2.5 times.

Foto: Dr. Rebekah Helton / Department of Biological Sciences / University of Delaware
18 / 20

Eighteenth place, Julia Sero of the US. Human skin from below. A number of structures can be identified in this magnification (60 times), including fibronectin, a protein that contributes to the firmness of skin.

Foto: Dr. Julia Sero / Children¿s Hospital Boston / Harvard Medical School
19 / 20

Ninteenth place, Yanping Wang of China. A snowflake, magnified 40 times.

Foto: Yanping Wang / Beijing Planetarium
20 / 20

Twentieth place, Havi Sarfaty of Israel. Even everyday objects like coins can be beautiful when magnified, in this case, 40 times.

Foto: Dr. Havi Sarfaty / Israel Veterinary Association