{"id":326608,"date":"2025-12-04T06:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T06:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/326608\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T06:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T06:33:11","slug":"the-10-enlightening-winners-of-the-royal-society-publishing-photography-competition-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/326608\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 Enlightening Winners of the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

The winners of the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025<\/a> showcase the best scientific photography worldwide across multiple categories, celebrating the overlap between compelling art and influential science.<\/p>\n

Operated in association with the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), the competition showcases the brilliant images that often reveal hidden scientific phenomena. This year\u2019s overall winner, Dr. Martin Ramirez, captured a brilliant photo using a scanning electron microscope that shows a 0.05-millimeter-long close-up of silk from the Australian net-casting spider (Asianopis subrufa). <\/p>\n

\"AOverall Winner and Microimaging Category Winner, \u2018Mesmerizing spider threads\u2019 by \u00a9 Martin J. Ramirez | Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025 <\/p>\n

These spiders are clever ambush predators who hold sticky, strong webs between their forelegs and throw it onto insects as they pass by. This distinct hunting strategy requires the silk to have unique properties, which is why Dr. Ramirez began studying the species in the first place, alongside his collaborator, Dr. Jonas Wolff from Greifswald University. <\/p>\n

Dr. Ramirez, a research scientist for the National Science and Technical Research Council at the Argentinian Museum of Natural Sciences, was surprised to hear of his victory. <\/p>\n

\u201cI knew my image was nice, but it is very surprising be competing with these awesome photographers,\u201d the humble scientist explains. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust from observing the behavior, we knew something spectacular was going to be there,\u201d Dr. Ramirez continues. \u201cThe web is incredibly stretchy; no normal silk can extend in that way to then return to its original form.\u201d <\/p>\n

Dr. Ramirez and Dr. Wolff worked together in Germany to carefully dissect the silk, fiber by fiber, and investigate it using an electron microscope. The winning image was actually captured back in Argentina using samples that Dr. Ramirez brought back with him. The electron microscope he used uses a beam of electrons to capture images rather than light. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe judges were unanimous in their selection of this winning photograph. We evaluate entries on two key criteria: aesthetic appeal and the ability to convey a compelling scientific phenomenon,\u201d remarks Hugh Turvey, Science Committee Chair at the Royal Photographic Society and a member of the competition\u2019s judging panel. \u201cThis bold, graphic SEM of inconceivable rope-like structures \u2014 with their remarkable twists and complex undulations \u2014 evokes a sense of wonder, perfectly demonstrating the intersection of artistic form and scientific function.\u201d <\/p>\n

Category Winners <\/p>\n

\u2028Alongside Dr. Ramirez\u2019s overall victory, scientific photographers competed across five categories: astronomy, behavior, Earth science and climatology, ecology and environmental science, and microimaging. Dr. Ramirez, who won \u00a31000, won the microimaging category. <\/p>\n

The four other category winners and five runners-up are featured below. Each winner earned \u00a3500 for their victories. <\/p>\n

Astronomy \"AWinner, \u2018Dancing on the Edge of Fire\u2019 by \u00a9 Imran Sultan | Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025 \"ARunner-up, \u2018Between Auroras and Dawn \u2014 A South Pole Sunrise After the Longest Night on Earth\u2019 by \u00a9\u00a0Aman Chokshi | Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025
\n Behavior \"TwoWinner, \u2018Prairie Chicken Jump Off\u2019 by \u00a9 Peter Hudson | Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025 \"ARunner-up, \u2018The Snake That Flies\u2019 by \u00a9 Irina Petrova Adamatzky | Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025 Earth Sciences and Climatology \"FourWinner, \u2018Scanning glaciers in the Antarctic winter\u2019 by \u00a9 Michael Meredith | Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025 \"ARunner-up, \u2018Where Fog Becomes Drinking Water: Four Decades of Science, Community, and Fog-Harvesting in the Atacama Desert\u2019 by \u00a9 Felipe R\u00edos Silva | Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025 Ecology and Environmental Science \"AWinner, \u2018Amphibian galaxy\u2019 by \u00a9 Filippo Carugati | Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025 \"TwoRunner-up, \u2018Lessons from a Forgotten Dance \u2013 Inspiration from Ainu culture to reflect on our human-nature-relationship\u2019 by \u00a9 Kees Bastmeijer | Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025 Microimaging \"ARunner-up, \u2018Neurite Nexus: The Blueprint of Motion\u2019 by \u00a9 Swetha Gurumurthy | Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025<\/p>\n

Image credits: Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025<\/a>. All photographers are credited in the captions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The winners of the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025 showcase the best scientific photography worldwide across multiple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,22279,5428,460,134,59518,183399,183400,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-326608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-competition","14":"tag-contest","15":"tag-design","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-photocontest","18":"tag-royalphotographicsociety","19":"tag-rps","20":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326608","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=326608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}