An image of a common agricultural pest on a single grain of rice has won the top prize at this year’s Nikon Small World competition. China’s Zhang You took home the first-place award for his striking image of a rice weevil mounted on a grain of rice.
Since 1974, the photomicrography competition has offered a glimpse of the world around us that is not visible to the naked eye. Each year, hundreds of scientists and artists from across the globe contribute entries. This year, the photo competition received about 1,925 photo entries from 77 countries.
See some of this year’s winners, honorable mentions and images of distinction below:
All images courtesy of Nikon Small World
Eye of potato (Photo by Robert Schmittling )
Rice weevil on a grain of rice (Photo by Zhang You)
Spotted eye hoverfly (Photo by Özgür Kerem Bulur)
Water fleas (Daphnia) and algae (Photo by Hong Guo)
Jumping spider (Photo by Jiri Cerny)
Vascular bundles in a bamboo leaf (Photo by Dr. David Maitland)
Wing of the chicken embryo after 11 days of development (Photo by Dr. Rory L. Cooper & Professor Michel Milinkovitch)
Frost on a wooden railing (Photo by Gregory B. Murray)
Parasitic fly (Photo by Bernard Allard)
Colonial algae spheres in a drop of water (Photo by Dr. Jan Rosenboom)
Melting snowflake (Photo by Michael Robert Peres)
