Sixth prize winner: A cluster of stink bug eggs, by Haris Antonopoulos from Athens, Greece【启动在线翻译】
Honorable mention: Dried thorax scales of the Weevil Eupholus, by Dr. Douglas Clark, from San Francisco, California【启动在线翻译】
Honrable mention: Wheat stigma infected with Claviceps fungus, by Dr. Fernán Federici, University of Cambridge, Plant Sciences Department, Cambridge, UK, and Dr. Anna Gordon, NIAB, Cambridge, UK
Honorable mention: Protozoan Elphidium crispum found growing on the Dorset coast of England, by Michael Gibson of Northampton, UK【启动在线翻译】
Honorable mention: Purslane (Portulaca) seed, by Yanping Wang from the Beijing Planetarium in Beijing, China
Honorable mention: Young sporangia of slime mold Arcyria stipata, by Dr. Dalibor Mat?sek, of the Mining University - Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic.【启动在线翻译】
Honorable mention: Pretarsus of the third leg of a female drone fly (Eristalis tenax), ventral view, by Dr. Jan Michels, Institute of Zoology, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany【启动在线翻译】
Honorable mention: Plant seed from freshwater pond near Moscow, by Daniel Stoupin of Moscow, Russia
Honorable mention: Serum arrested mouse L-1210 cells engaged in spontaneous apoptosis (programmed cell death) after nutrient depletion and acid hydrolysis, by Dr. Frank Abernathy of Jamestown, Ohio.
Seventh prize: Fruit fly ovaries and uterus. The muscular and neural structure of the Drosophila melanogaster reproductive system is shown using fluorescence microscopy. The background staining of the eggs in red is a specific function of the mutant fly strain that is pictured here. Gunnar Newquist, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada
Honorable mention: Connective tissue cells co-transduced with five fluorescent proteins, by Dr. Daniela Malide, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
First prize winner: Rotifer Floscularia ringens feeding. Its rapidly beating cilia (hair-like structures) bring water that contains food to the rotifer. The "wheel animacules" were first described by Leeuwenhoek (ca.1702); when their cilia beat, they look like they have two wheels spinning on top. They live in reddish-brown tubes made of spherical "bricks." Charles Krebs, Issaquah, Washington
Honorable mention: Adult mouse hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in learning and memory. Reactive astroglia (pale yellow) have proliferated and enlarged in response to neuronal activity over time. Dr. Sandra Dieni, Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany.
Honorable mention: Juvenile live bay scallop Argopecten irradians. The blue spheres are eyes -- scallops have up to 100 simple eyes strung around the edges of their mantles. Through research, scientists are trying to help restore scallop populations in Rhode Island. Kathryn Markey, Aquatic Diagnostic Laboratory, Roger Williams University, Bristol, Rhode Island.
Honorable mention: Mast cell in human eye with conjunctivitis. This image shows a single mast cell invading conjunctival tissue in response to an inflammatory agent or pathogen. The mast cell contains vesicles of histamine (red dots). Mast cells are among the first cells of the immune system to react to the presence of an invading pathogen and they facilitate the movement of leukocytes (white blood cells) and other immune cells toward the site of infection. Donald Pottle, The Schepens Eye Research Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
Honorable mention: The eye of a damselfly. The image reveals the regular, crystal-like hexagonal lattice of the eye's elements. Dr. Igor Siwanowicz, Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology, Munich, Germany
Honorable mention: Underwater image of live coral Montastraea annularis. Note polyp tissue (green) around the mouth and base of the tentacles and zooxanthellae (red fluorescence from chlorophyll) in the tissue between polyps. James Nicholson, NOAA/NOS/NCCOS Center for Coastal Environmental Health & Biomolecular Research, Fort Johnson Marine Lab, Charleston, South Carolina
Honorable mention: Skeleton of a radiolarian, a single-cell protozoan with an intricate mineral skeleton, by Christopher B. Jackson of Berne, Switzerland.
Tenth prize: Spherical colonies of Nostoc commune, a bluegreen alga, by Gerd Guenther, Duesseldorf, Germany
Honorable mention: Neuronal culture, fluorescence, six images stitched at 40x magnification, by Jan Schmoranzer, Freie University Berlin, Institute for Chemistry and Biochemistry, Berlin, Germany
Honorable mention: Two damsel bugs (Nabis sp.) seemingly feeding on an aphid by Geir Drange of Asker, Norway. The backdrop is a dried Norway maple leaf
Honorable mention: Forewing of the green tiger beetle Cicindela campestris by Dr. Jerzy Gubernator of Wroclaw, Poland
Honrable mention: Sporangium of the slime mold Craterium minutum, by Dr. Dalibor Mat?sek, Mining University - Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Honorable mention: Detail of a pod of the flowering legume Scorpius muricatus (common name "Prickly Caterpillar"), by Viktor S?kora, from Hyskov, Czech Republic.
