These Award-Winning Videos Prove The Micro World Is Just As Beautiful As Our Own Macro Realm

12 GIFs That Prove Our World Is Even More Beautiful Than It Seems

Things moving around on the micro level are simply mesmerizing.

To see for yourself, just check out the videos (below) that were recently named the year's best in Nikon's annual Small World in Motion Photomicrography Competition. The winning videos offer a very up-close look at happenings that seem mundane on the surface -- from the development of a fish's inner ear to crystals forming -- but are anything but mundane under a microscope.

The competition showcases some of the best micro-videography from around the world, and this year more than 130 entries were vying for top honors. The entries were judged by Dr. Paul Maddox, assistant professor of biology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Check out the top three winning videos below -- and nine honorable mentions.

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First Place winner: The development of the zebrafish lateral line, a sensory organ analogous to the inner ear of humans, submitted by Dr. Mariana Muzzopappa and Jim Swoger.
NikonMicroscopes/YouTube
Second Place winner: A time-lapse of caffeine crystallization, submitted by Dr. Douglas Clark.
NikonMicroscopes/YouTube
Third Place winner: Oil film floating on water, submitted by Dr. John Hart.
NikonMicroscopes/YouTube
Honorable mention: A single-celled organism called Lacrymaria olor, submitted by Mr. Wim van Egmond.
NikonMicroscopes/YouTube
Honorable mention: Human melanoma cancer cells distorting, submitted by Dr. Jeremy Logue.
NikonMicroscopes/YouTube
Honorable mention: Time-lapse of a two-day old zebrafish embryo with green erythrocytes and red blood vessels, submitted by Elliott Hagedorn
NikonMicroscopes/YouTube
Honorable mention: A nematode's cells dividing, submitted by Shaohe Wang.
NikonMicroscopes/YouTube
Honorable mention: Killer T cells engaging a cancer cell, submitted by Alex Ritter, Dr. Bi-Chang Chen, Dr. Wesley Legant & Dr. Liang Gao.
NikonMicroscopes/YouTube
Honorable mention: DNA micro-machine rolling across a fluorescently labeled RNA surface, submitted by Kevin Yehl.
NikonMicroscopes/YouTube
Honorable mention: Aplysia sea slug neuron, submitted by Dr. Masha Prager-Khoutorsky.
NikonMicroscopes/YouTube
Honorable mention: A protein called vimentin, submitted by Dr. Nancy Costigliola-Tarsky.
NikonMicroscopes/YouTube
Honorable mention: Tracking the locomotion of a fruit fly, submitted by Pushkar Paranjpe.

Before You Go

Nikon Small World - 20th Place

Nikon Small World 2012 Winners

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