An image of a common agricultural pest on a single grain of rice has been awarded first prize in an international photography competition that challenges people to think small \u2014 microscopically small.<\/p>\n
Called the Nikon Small World competition, the contest has been celebrating the beauty in the teeny-tiny for 51 years and is renowned for showcasing spectacular imagery captured with the help of a microscope.<\/p>\n
The entries were judged on their originality, informational content, technical proficiency, and visual impact.<\/p>\n
This year’s winner, which you can see at the top of this article, depicts a rice weevil with its wings fully extended.<\/p>\n
The image was created by Zhang You, a member of the Entomological Society of China.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr You took more than 100 images for focus stacking, carefully cleaning, lighting and post-processing the specimen over the course of two weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the subject itself was a rare and fortunate find.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I had observed rice weevils in grains before, but never one with its wings spread,” Mr You explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This one was naturally preserved on a windowsill, perhaps in a final attempt to escape.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr You also earned 15th place in this year’s competition with an image of a Geometer moth laying eggs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here’s a look at the other top-ranked images.<\/p>\n
2. Jan Rosenboom from Germany<\/p>\n
Colonial algae spheres in a drop of water. (Nikon Small World 2025: Jan Rosenboom)<\/p>\n
3. John-Oliver Dum from Germany<\/p>\n
Pollen in a garden spider web. (Nikon Small World 2025: John-Oliver Dum\u00a0)<\/p>\n
4. James Hayes from USA<\/p>\n
Heart muscle cells with chromosomes condensed following cell division. (Nikon Small World 2025: James Hayes)<\/p>\n
5. Igor Siwanowicz from USA<\/p>\n
Spores of a small tropical fern. (Nikon Small World 2025: Igor Siwanowicz)<\/p>\n
6. Francisco L\u00e1zaro-Di\u00e9guez from USA<\/p>\n
Rat liver cells. (Nikon Small World 2025: Francisco L\u00e1zaro-Di\u00e9guez)<\/p>\n
7. Stella Whittaker from USA\u00a0<\/p>\n
iPSC-derived sensory neurons labelled to show tubulin and actin. (Nikon Small World 2025: Stella Whittaker)<\/p>\n
8. Igor Siwanowicz from USA\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mallow pollen germinating on stigma while being parasitised by a filamentous fungus. (Nikon Small World 2025: Mallow pollen germinating on stigma while being parasitized by a filamentous fungus)<\/p>\n
9. Wim van Egmond from Netherlands<\/p>\n
A fungus known for its red, diffused pigment. (Nikon Small World 2025: Wim van Egmond)<\/p>\n
10. Dylan Burnette and James Hayes from USA\u00a0<\/p>\n
Heart muscle cells showing condensed chromosomes in metaphase. (Nikon Small World 2025: Dylan Burnette and James Hayes)<\/p>\n
11. Marek Mi\u015b from Poland<\/p>\n
Sunflower trichomes. (Nikon Small World 2025: Marek Mi\u015b)<\/p>\n
12. Halli Lindamood and Eric Vitriol from USA\u00a0<\/p>\n
The actin cytoskeleton and endoplasmic reticulum of a mouse brain cancer cell.
\n\u00a0 (Nikon Small World 2025: Halli Lindamood & Eric Vitriol)<\/p>\n
13. Henri Koskinen from Finland<\/p>\n
Slime mould releasing spores. (Nikon Small World 2025: Henri Koskinen)<\/p>\n
14. Manfred Heising from Germany\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quartz with biotic goethite filaments. (Nikon Small World 2025: Manfred Heising)<\/p>\n
15. Zhang You from China\u00a0<\/p>\n
A geometer moth laying eggs.
\n\u00a0 (Nikon Small World 2025: Zhang You)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image of a common agricultural pest on a single grain of rice has been awarded first prize…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134,65923,8212,132154,132153],"class_list":["post-216132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-nikon","tag-photography","tag-photomicroscopy","tag-small-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}