An annual photography competition, celebrating scientific microscopic images, has unveiled this year’s winners. A startling cross-section shot of a flower has been awarded the fifth annual Evident Image of the Year Award, leading a mesmerizing gallery of miniature marvels.
Previously known as the Image of the Year European Life Science Light Microscopy Award, the competition is designed to celebrate the beauty and scientific value of the tiny world all around us. Entries are judged on their artistic and visual appeal, scientific impact and the microscope proficiency required to capture the images.
This year’s global winner was US photographer Igor Siwanowicz, for his entry called Beauty of Cosmic Proportions. The image captures a cross-section of a Cosmic Orange aster flower, with maturing pollen grains visible as green, yellow and orange circles.
“I think this image shows the true beauty of a common flower that most of us take for granted by extending it well beyond what we can see with the naked eye,” Siwanowicz explained. “The beauty of natural form and design is present on very different scales, sometimes almost in a fractal manner — as we continue to zoom in, the form may lose familiarity but also become a new emotional experience.”
The Materials Science Image of the Year was awarded to German photographer Gerd Günther, for his entry titled Connecting All Living Things. It depicts a close-up of a human hair knotted onto a strand of horse hair, with incident brightfield illumination creating a shimmering, metallic effect.
For the first time, a video category was added to the competition as well. The inaugural winner was Zhigang Zheng from China for A Vast and Boundless Universe, a timelapse capturing amino acid crystallization.
Regional winners are also awarded for the best images from the Americas; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Asia-Pacific. Check out all the winners, as well as the honorable mentions, in our gallery.
Source: Evident - Olympus Life Science
