The Most Incredible Microscope Images Of 2016 Reveal A Beautiful, Hidden Universe

The world we see with our eyes is just one view of reality, but microscopes can bring a smaller, practically invisible universe within reach.

Photographs taken through the lenses of a high-power 'scope can reveal lifeforms and objects no person has ever seen.

They also highlight beautiful, artistic, and often shocking details in common objects, like soap bubbles, dried coffee, flowers, and butterfly tongues:

^{A butterfly proboscis.Jochen Schroeder/Nikon Small World}

The Nikon Small World contest celebrates the most amazing microscope photos from around the world, and 2016's competition was as amazing as any of the years before it: more than 2,000 entries from 70 countries. (I was a judge for the 40th year of the contest.)

Nikon will release the winners on Wednesday, October 19, via its Instagram account,@NikonInstruments.

Until then, soak in the finalists below — and cast a vote for your favorite.

Red speckled jewel beetle

^{Yousef Al Habshi/Nikon Small World}

Eyes of a jumping spider

^{Yousef Al Habshi/Nikon Small World}

Slime mold

^{Jose Almodovar/Nikon Small World}

Zebrafish fin

^{Leonardo Andrade/Nikon Small World}

Glycerin-based soapy solution

^{Haris Antonopoulos/Nikon Small World}

Ammonite shell

^{Norm Barker/Nikon Small World}

Zooplankton carefully arranged by hand in Victorian style

^{Stefano Barone/Nikon Small World}

Microcrystal test for oxycodone

^{Kelly Brinsko/Nikon Small World}

Tiger beetle and a scale of the forester moth

^{Rudolf Büchi/Nikon Small World}

Human HeLa cell undergoing cell division

^{Dylan Burnette/Nikon Small World}

Head of a skinbow zebrafish larvae

 

^{Chen Chen-Hui/Nikon Small World}

Copper crystals

^{Honorio Cócera-La Parra/Nikon Small World}

Human brain cells differentiated from embryonic stem cells

^{Gist F. Croft, Lauren Pietilla, Stephanie Tse, Szilvia Galgoczi, Maria Fenner, Ali H. Brivanlou/Nikon Small World}

Fungus growing on cow dung

^{Michael Crutchley/Nikon Small World}

Scales of a butterfly wing

^{Evan Darling/Nikon Small World}

Mouse hand showing veins

^{Evan Darling/Nikon Small World}

Tintinnid ciliate of a marine plankton from the Indian Ocean

^{John Dolan/Nikon Small World}

The prolegs of a hairy caterpillar gripping a small branch

^{James Dorey/Nikon Small World}

Head of an orange ladybird

^{Geir Drange/Nikon Small World}

Ant pupae

^{Geir Drange/Nikon Small World}

Fossil diatom composed of 20 individual photos

^{Frank Fox/Nikon Small World}

Mullein flower

^{Karl Gaff/Nikon Small World}

Green bottle fly

^{Erno Endre Gergley/Nikon Small World}

Flow currents generated by an eight-week-old starfish larva

^{William Gilpin, Vivek N. Prakash, Manu Prakash/Nikon Small World}

Butterfly scales

^{Scales of a butterfly wing Agrodiaetus thersites Chapman's Blue male. Anne Gleich/Nikon Small World}

Algae

^{Anne Gleich/Nikon Small World}

Air bubbles in evaporating tequila

^{James Hayden/Nikon Small World}

Rubber coated with a thin glass

^{James Hedrick/Nikon Small World}

Beta-alanine and taurine crystals

^{Matt Inman/Nikon Small World}

Cultured fat cells from a grizzly bear

^{Heiko T. Jansen, Jamie Gehring, Kimberly Rigano, Charles Robbins/Nikon Small World}

Deep sea crustacean

^{Tomonari Kaji/Nikon Small World}

Mouse retinal ganglion cells

^{Keunyoung Kim/Nikon Small World}

Mouse retina, laid flat

^{Keunyoung Kim/Nikon Small World}

A daisy's central disc pattern of tiny unopened flowers

^{Peter Kinchington/Nikon Small World}

Espresso coffee crystals

Vin Kitayama and Sanae Kitayama/Nikon Small World

Black elder tree flower stamen

^{Laurie Knight/Nikon Small World}

Spore capsule of a moss

^{Henri Koskinen/Nikon Small World}

Tail of a small shrimp

^{Charles Krebs/Nikon Small World}

Cross section of a lily of the valley

^{Falco Krüger/Nikon Small World}

Brain matter of a transgenic mouse in 3D

^{Hei Ming Lai and Dr. Wutian Wu/Nikon Small World}

Testis of a fruit fly

^{Christopher Large/Nikon Small World}

Mosquito larva

^{Edwin Lee/Nikon Small World}

Section of the cerebellum in a brain

^{Marc Leushacke/Nikon Small World}

Surface of embryonic mouse kidney

^{Nils Lindstrom/Nikon Small World}

Barley stem cross section

^{Stephen Lowry/Nikon Small World}

Leaves of a lesser club moss

^{David Maitland/Nikon Small World}

Crystals of salicin, a painkiller, extracted from Willow tree bark

^{David Maitland/Nikon Small World}

Seeds of an Indian Paintbrush wildflower

^{David Millard/Nikon Small World}

Curvepod fumewort seed

^{David Millard/Nikon Small World}

Egg of a Gulf Fritillary butterfly

^{David Millard/Nikon Small World}

Caudal gill of a dragonfly larva

^{Marek Mis/Nikon Small World}

Air bubbles formed from melted ascorbic acid crystals

^{Marek Mis/Nikon Small World}

Leg of a water boatman

^{Marek Mis/Nikon Small World}

Polished slab of Teepee Canyon agate

^{Douglas L. Moore/Nikon Small World}

A Frontonia cell showing ingested food, cilia, mouth, and trichocysts

^{Rogelio Moreno Gill/Nikon Small World}

Algae cells

^{Jacek Myslowski/Nikon Small World}

Water mite

^{Jacek Myslowski/Nikon Small World}

Cerebellum brain section of a rat

^{Barbara Orsolits/Nikon Small World}

Hippocampal brain slice

^{Jennifer Peters/Nikon Small World}

Midge flies

^{Csaba Pintér/Nikon Small World}

Goatsbeard flower seeds

^{Csaba Pintér/Nikon Small World}

Poison fangs of a centipede

^{Walter Piorkowski/Nikon Small World}

Cross-section of reinforced carbon-fiber

^{Peter Pook/Nikon Small World}

Young flower buds of Arabidopsis, a flowering plant

^{Nathanaël Prunet/Nikon Small World}

Early stages of mouse embryos

^{Gaelle Recher, M. Goolam, M. Zernicka-Goetz /Nikon Small World}

Section of stem of a plant specimen

^{Edgar Javier Rincón/Nikon Small World}

Robber fly

^{Jan Rosenboom/Nikon Small World}

Viperfish

^{Alvaro Roura/Nikon Small World}

Crystals of diclofenac (also called Zorvolex), a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug

^{Adolfo Ruiz De Segovia/Nikon Small World}

Four-day-old zebrafish embryo

^{Oscar Ruiz/Nikon Small World}

Oreina cacaliae

^{Pia Scanlon/Nikon Small World}

Butterfly proboscis

^{Jochen Schroeder/Nikon Small World}

Wasp eyes

^{Jochen Schroeder/Nikon Small World}

3D picture of moving vesicles

^{Erdinc Sezgin/Nikon Small World}

Wildflower stamens

^{Samuel Silberman/Nikon Small World}

Wildflower stamens

^{Samuel Silberman/Nikon Small World}

Front foot of a male diving beetle

^{Igor Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World}

Inside of a humped bladderwort, a freshwater carnivorous plant

Igor Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World

Gear-like hind legs of a planthopper nymph

^{Igor Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World}

Scales of a butterfly wing underside

 

^{Francis Sneyers/Nikon Small World}

Section of a begonia flower

 

^{Viktor Sykora/Nikon Small World}

Jurinea mollis seed

^{Viktor Sykora/Nikon Small World}

Dahlia flower section

^{Harold Taylor/Nikon Small World}

Leaves of a liverwort plant

^{Magdalena Turza?ska/Nikon Small World}

Casuarina seed

^{Anastasia Tyurina/Nikon Small World}

Trumpet animalcule an endosymbionts

^{Wim van Egmond/Nikon Small World}

Diatoms

^{Arlene Wechezak/Nikon Small World}

Hippocampal neurons

^{Wutian Wu/Nikon Small World}

Jellyfish

^{Teresa Zgoda/Nikon Small World}

Galls of a mite and fungus on the surface of a scarlet firethorn plant

^{Györgyi Zséli/Nikon Small World}

Ant leg

^{Györgyi Zséli/Nikon Small World}

 

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