Olympus BioScapes Competition 2011 Winners: Incredible Microscopic Images Of The Natural World (PHOTOS)

The Olympus BioScapes competition has produced some of the world's most stunning microscopic digital images and videos of life science.

Now in its eighth year running, the winning entry is a photograph by Charles Krebs of Issaquah, Washington showing an underwater Rotifer Floscularia that relies on rapidly beating cilia to bring food-laden water in so it can feed.

From live green brain coral captured underwater to stink bug eggs snapped in Greece, you'll see some breathtaking photos of nature at its most beautiful.

Other images not to be missed include the reproductive system of a fruit fly and the golden chloroplasts in a living diatom.

See a selection of these mesmerizing photos from the Olympus BioScapes competition in the slideshow below.

Comments

[GirlUsingBrain]

12:16 PM on 11/16/2011

Fantastic and amazing! I just love microscopy!

[abudotcom]

09:57 AM on 11/16/2011

Once again nature at its best.... Amazing photography.....

[asiclilpup]

11:04 PM on 11/15/2011

No matter how big or how small, Mother Nature keeps showing us how beautiful she is.

[shewolf2002]

09:51 AM on 11/16/2011

Absolutely.

[stanleycorp1]

09:43 PM on 11/16/2011

Yes, I also think that C. Stephen Eckel, the New York Democratic Legislator could put his nature art next to the Fruitfly Ovaries And Uterus

[Renda Brooks]

11:00 PM on 11/15/2011

Nature weaves powerful magic and the photographers captured some of it in these images.

[jnsprngslvr]

10:52 PM on 11/15/2011

11.15.11
Only a creative God can weave such a wonder as that: man can dream and he can scheme but he
can never create the intricate workings of the natural order of things.

[mikeyaz17]

09:37 AM on 11/16/2011

neither can god as he doesn't exist.. .it's good ole evolution at work here... that's all... and shouldn't that be awe inspiring enough without inventing some magic make believe as*hole?

humans need to get their priorities in order

[ROXK]

09:56 AM on 11/16/2011

I feel bad for people without faith........ However I will still pray for you. =)

[Experimental Decay]

10:11 PM on 11/15/2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal fractal

[Experimental Decay]

10:14 PM on 11/15/2011

some amazing images, that first image reminds me of fractals

[jbeachboy]

09:13 PM on 11/15/2011

is there any money in science fields?

[BuckyJamesDio]

11:57 PM on 11/15/2011

If oil is involved, yeah.

[GirlUsingBrain]

12:24 PM on 11/16/2011

Absolutely! I am an environmental chemist and do pretty well; however; I will never be wealthy.

Check-out microbiology, molecular biology, cellular physiology ... all fascinating fields.

[jbeachboy]

07:12 PM on 11/16/2011

really what is the salary range for this field,

[marymrevis]

08:42 PM on 11/15/2011

I work in the medical field (my first love), I adore nature and her beauty and I love photography. Seeing all three of the fields combined is a dream to me. DAMN this is so cool!

[GirlUsingBrain]

12:25 PM on 11/16/2011

Me too! Fanned for being cool!

[marymrevis]

09:56 PM on 11/16/2011

*wink*

[JCleveland]

08:32 PM on 11/15/2011

I have seen very similar structures in... enhanced states of awareness... in parts unknown...

[lobstur]

09:02 PM on 11/15/2011

yes. sometimes do you marvel at how similar things appear to be... on some kind of galactic scale? like everything, the big and the small, all follow these similar patterns!!

AHH, MY MIND

[JCleveland]

09:06 PM on 11/15/2011

Almost like they're the same braids of energy, mass, gravity, etc going through changes of state that bend back on one another's physical manifestation at the macro and micro scale? Yes!

[Awilda VelezRodriguez]

08:25 PM on 11/15/2011

An Amazing beauty!

[BuckyJamesDio]

08:09 PM on 11/15/2011

Nature rawks. This are so.

[musikhut]

07:47 PM on 11/15/2011

I always look at these types of photos and have never failed to be impressed by them. This set was just neat to look at, but I've seen others that could be the very things nightmares are made of. Ther are some really wicked looking things living at the microscopic level.

[Dredd]

07:18 PM on 11/15/2011

These are pictures of cells within human beings that outnumber human cells at least 10 to one, and which help form the human brain and genetics.

http://ecocosmology.blogspot.com/2011/10/on-new-meaning-of-human.html

[thanadar]

07:11 PM on 11/15/2011

This is merely evidence that there is order in the universe. I'm an agnostic, but sometimes I think there is something beyond the random chaos espoused by our misguided atheistic brethren.

[JCleveland]

08:34 PM on 11/15/2011

Er, well. 'tis the height of hubris for anyone to claim one way or the other. So I guess I agree. But for every drop of Order, I see 10 drops of Entropy... Which most likely coalesces into a down-stream order, dissolving into entropy, etc...

[p8q2b8ng]

11:22 PM on 11/15/2011

Order (nor disorder) doesn't necessarily point towards (or against) a creator. The truly misguided (yet possibly correct, but unlikely so) people are the ones who are determined that they know the answer to whether there is or is not a creator. With that said, there are two types of Atheists. One is, "I don't believe because there can't possibly be a creator". Two is (which I am), "I do not believe in a creator, because I see no evidence towards one (and/or there being evidence against one). If there becomes new evidence, I will rethink the issue based on the evidence" (this is the stand of most "agnostics". Agnostics are a type of Atheists. Agnostic is almost a completely useless term. It is usually used to try and say you don't necessarily disagree with anyone). The only thing, at this point, that I can tell you with utmost certainty, anyone that says they know anything about a creator is incorrect.

[mdg0148]

06:46 PM on 11/15/2011

excelent photos