Nikon Small World 2025 Photomicrography Winners
Nikon has announced the winners of its 2025 Small World photomicrography competition, gathering images from all around the world that show off the microscopic universe around us in shocking detail. The winning images depict a wide range of subjects, including cells from a variety of organs (and even species), insects, fungi and minerals, just to name a few.
There’s also a Small World videography competition, for which Nikon announced the winners last month.
There are twenty winners, which you’ll see in this slideshow, but there are several other honorable mentions and images of distinction, which Nikon has hosted on its site. The company says it received “thousands of entries from scientists and artists across the globe.”
1st place: Zhang You
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Subject: Rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae) on a grain of rice
Technique: Image Stacking
Objective Lens Magnification: 5X
Location: Kunming, Yunnan, China
About the image: You is a member of the Entomological Society of China and the Entomological Society of Yunnan Province. He told Nikon: “It pays to dive deep into entomology: understanding insects’ behaviors and mastering lighting.” “A standout work blends artistry with scientific rigor, capturing the very essence, energy, and spirit of these creatures.”
The image was created over the course of two weeks out of 100 exposures taken with a medium format camera.
You told Nikon: “I had observed rice weevils in grains before, but never one with its wings spread.” “This one was naturally preserved on a windowsill, perhaps in a final attempt to escape. Its tiny size makes manually preparing spread-wing specimens extremely difficult, so encountering it was both serendipitous and inspiring.”
2nd place: Dr. Jan Rosenboom
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Subject: Colonial algae (Volvox) spheres in a drop of water
Technique: Reflected Light
Objective Lens Magnification: 5X
Location: Rostock, Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Germany
3rd place: John-Oliver Dum
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Subject: Pollen in a garden spider web
Technique: Image Stacking
Objective Lens Magnification: 20X
Location: Medienbunker Produktion, Bendorf, Rheinland Pfalz, Germany
4th place: Dr. James Hayes
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Subject: Heart muscle cells with chromosomes condensed following cell division
Technique: Confocal
Objective Lens Magnification: 100x
Location: Vanderbilt University, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
5th place: Dr. Igor Siwanowicz
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Subject: Spores (blue/purple structures) of a small tropical fern (Ceratopteris richardii)
Technique: Confocal
Objective Lens Magnification: 25X
Location: Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia, USA
6th place: Dr. Francisco Lázaro-Diéguez
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Subject: Rat liver cells
Technique: Confocal
Objective Lens Magnification: 63X
Location: Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA
7th place: Stella Whittaker
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Subject: iPSC-derived sensory neurons labelled to show tubulin and actin
Technique: Confocal, Fluorescence, Image Stacking
Objective Lens Magnification: 10X
Location: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
8th place: Dr. Igor Siwanowicz
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Subject: Mallow pollen germinating on stigma while being parasitized by a filamentous fungus
Technique: Confocal
Objective Lens Magnification: 40X
Location: Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Janelia Research Campus, Ashburn, Virginia, USA
9th place: Wim van Egmond
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Subject: A fungus (Talaromyces purpureogenus) known for its red, diffused pigment
Technique: Image Stacking
Objective Lens Magnification: 10X
Location: Micropolitan Museum, Berkel en Rodenrijs, Zuid Holland, Netherlands
10th place: Dr. Dylan Burnette & Dr. James Hayes
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Subject: Heart muscle cells (iPSC-derived) showing condensed chromosomes in metaphase
Technique: Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM)
Objective Lens Magnification: 60X
Location: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
11th place: Marek Miś
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Subject: Sunflower trichomes (hair-like plant outgrowths)
Technique: Polarized Light
Objective Lens Magnification: 10X
Location: Marek Miś Photography, Suwalki, Podlaskie, Poland
12th place: Halli Lindamood & Eric Vitriol
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Subject: The actin cytoskeleton (cyan) and endoplasmic reticulum (red) of a mouse brain cancer cell
Technique: Confocal, Deconvolution
Objective Lens Magnification: 100X
Location: Augusta University, Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, Augusta, Georgia, USA
13th place: Henri Koskinen
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Subject: Slime mold (Arcyria major) releasing spores
Technique: Image Stacking, Reflected Light
Objective Lens Magnification: 10X
Location: Helsinki University, Helsinki, Uudenmaan lääni, Finland
14th place: Manfred Heising
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Subject: Quartz with biotic goethite filaments
Technique: Image Stacking
Objective Lens Magnification: 5X
Location: LWL Museum of Natural History Münster, Münster, Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany
15th place: Zhang You
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Subject: Geometer moth (Geometridae) laying eggs
Technique: Image Stacking
Objective Lens Magnification: 5X
Location: Kunming, Yunnan, China
16th place: Rogelio Moreno
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Subject: Spore sacs (sporangia) of a fern
Technique: Fluorescence, Image Stacking
Objective Lens Magnification: 40X
Location: Panama, Panama
17th place: Hong Guo
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Subject: Water fleas (Daphnia) and algae
Technique: Image Stacking
Objective Lens Magnification: 5X
Location: Chengdu, Si Chuan, China
18th place: Marius Mählen, Koen Oost, Prisca Liberali & Laurent Gelman
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Subject: Fluorescently marked mouse colon
Technique: Confocal
Objective Lens Magnification: 20X
Location: Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel, Basel Stadt, Switzerland
19th place: Eduardo Agustin Carrasco
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Subject: Parasitic fungus (Cordycipitaceae) on a fly (Calliphoridae)
Technique: Image Stacking
Objective Lens Magnification: 2X
Location: Cuenca, Azuay, Ecuador
20th place: Zachary Sanchez
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Subject: Marine copepod
Technique: Confocal
Objective Lens Magnification: 60X
Location: Vanderbilt University, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Nashville, Tennessee, USA