Gallery: Life's Littlest Pleasures Make Amazing Microscope Photos
01Carnivorous Bladderwort
This amazing microscope image of a carnivorous bladderwort is this year's winner of the [Olympus BioScapes digital imaging competition](http://www.OlympusBioScapes.com). The close-ups that landed in the top 10 of the competition are a stunning collection of tiny living things. From a glassworm to a bat embryo, these images are pretty incredible, but the winning shot above is a standout. Taken by Igor Siwanowicz, the photo shows the open trap of an aquatic carnivorous plant known as a humped bladderwort (*Utricularia gibba*). The plant floats in water waiting for its prey to touch its trigger hairs, which cause the plant to open its trap so quickly that it sucks in water as well as some unlucky microinvertebrates. The pretty little flakes near the bottom of the image are single-cell algae that live inside the trap. The image is magnified 100 times. Any biological subject is eligible for the contest, and images and movies are judged based scientific, aesthetic and technical merit. The carnivorous plant image beat out more than 2,000 other entries from 62 countries. *Image credit: Igor Siwanowicz / Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®*
02Bat Embryo
### Second Place __Dorit Hockman__, University of Oxford, Oxfordshire, U.K. __Subject:__ A lateral view of a black mastiff bat embryo (*Molossus rufus*), at the "peek-a-boo" stage when its wings have grown to cover its eyes. As development progresses, their fingers grow longer and form the maneuverable struts of their wings, supporting the membrane between their fingers. __Technique:__ Stereo microscopy *Credit: Dorit Hockman / Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®*
03Single-Cell Algae
### Third Place __Igor Siwanowicz__, HHMI Janelia Farm Research Campus, Virginia __Subject:__ A composite image showing a collection of single-cell fresh water algae, desmids. Desmids exhibit a vast diversity of sizes from 10 microns or smaller to 0.3mm or more. The red in the image comes from the innate fluorescence of chlorophyll. __Technique:__ Confocal imaging __Magnification:__ 400x *Credit: Igor Siwanowicz / Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®*
Spike Walker04Flower Bud
### Fourth Place __Spike Walker__, Staffordshire, U.K. __Subject:__ Stained transverse section of a lily flower bud __Technique:__ Darkfield illumination, stitched images *Credit: Spike Walker / Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®*
05Mouse Fibroblasts
### Fifth Place __Dylan Burnette__, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland __Subject:__ Mouse embryonic fibroblasts showing the actin filaments (red) and DNA (blue). The image also shows the insides of mitochondria, which were visualized by expressing a green fluorescent protein (GFP) fused to a mitochondrial localization sequence. __Technique:__ Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) fluorescence __Magnification:__ 60x *Credit: Dylan Burnette / Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®*
06Brother Bugs
### Sixth Place __Kurt Wirz__, HHMI Janelia Farm Research Campus, Virginia __Subject:__ "Brother bugs" (*Gonocerus acuteangulatus*), 2 hours old, 3 mm in size. *Credit: Kurt Wirz / Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®*
07Glassworm
### Seventh Place __Charles Krebs__, Issaquah, Washington __Subject:__ Phantom midge larva (*Chaoborus*) "Glassworm." Birefringent musculature that is usually clear and colorless is made visible here by specialized illumination. __Technique:__ Polarized light __Magnification:__ 100x *Credit: Charles Krebs / Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®*
08Mouse Tails
### Eighth Place __Yaron Fuchs__, Howard Hughes Medical Institute/The Rockefeller University, New York __Subject:__ Mouse tail whole mounts stained for the K15 (green) hair follicle stem cell marker as well as Ki67 (red), which marks proliferating cells. Nuclei are marked with DAPI (blue). (Technician on the project was Samara Brown.) __Technique:__ Confocal Z-stack image *Credit: Yaron Fuchs / Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®*
09Caddisfly Larva
### Ninth Place __Fabrice Parais__, DREAL (Regional Directorate of Environment, Planning and Housing) of Basse-Normandie, Caen, France __Subject:__ Head and legs of a caddisfly larva: *Sericostoma sp*., a European and North American genus of insects whose larvae live in fresh water, in gravel, stones or sand. The *Sericostoma* builds a case (portable tube) of sand grains to protect her flabby body, and eats plant debris and small invertebrates. This larva is a benthic macroinvertebrate that can be used for freshwater biomonitoring; because it is relatively sensitive to organic pollution and dies if water is dirty, it is a good indicator of water quality. __Technique:__ Stereo microscopy __Magnification:__ 15x *Credit: Fabrice Parais / Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®*
10Paramecium
### Tenth Place __Ralph Grimm__, Jimboomba Queensland, Australia. __Subject:__ *Paramecium*, showing contractile vacuole and ciliary motion. *Paramecium* lives in fresh water. The excess water it takes in via osmosis is collected into two contractile vacuoles, one at each end, which swell and expel water through an opening in the cell membrane. The sweeping motion of the hair-like cilia helps the single-celled organism move. __Technique:__ Differential interference contrast __Magnification:__ 350x-1000x *Credit: Ralph Grimm / Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®*
