1st Place: Wim van Egmond, Micropolitan Museum, Berkel en Rodenrijs, Zuid Holland, The Netherlands Subject: Chaetoceros debilis (marine diatom), a colonial plankton organism

Technique: Differential Interference Contrast, Image Stacking

Magnification: 250x 2nd Place: Joseph Corbo, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri Subject: Chrysemys picta (painted turtle) retina

Technique: Differential Interference Contrast

Magnification: 400x 3rd Place: Alvaro Esteves Migotto, Universidade de São Paulo, Centro de Biologia Marinha São Paulo, Brazil Subject: Marine worm

Technique: Stereomicroscopy, Darkfield

Magnification: 20x 4th Place: Rogelio Moreno Gill, Panama City, Panamá Subject: Paramecium sp. showing the nucleus, mouth and water expulsion vacuoles

Technique: Differential Interference Contrast

Magnification: 40x 5th Place: Kieran Boyle, University of Glasgow, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, Scotland Subject: Hippocampal neuron receiving excitatory contacts

Technique: Fluorescence and Confocal

Magnification: 63x 6th Place: Dorit Hockman, University of Cambridge, England Subject: Chamaeleo calyptratus (veiled chameleon), embryo showing cartilage (blue) and bone (red)

Technique: Brightfield 7th Place: Jan Michels, Institute of Zoology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany Subject: Adhesive pad on a foreleg of Coccinella septempunctata (ladybird beetle)

Technique: Confocal, Autofluorescence

Magnification: 20x 8th Place: Magdalena Turzańska, Institute of Experimental Biology, University of Wrocław, Poland Subject: Barbilophozia sp. (a leafy liverwort, bryophyte plant) and cyanobacteria

Technique: Epi-autofluorescence under UV light, z-stack reconstruction

Magnification: 50x 9th Place: Mark A. Sanders, University Imaging Centers, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Subject: Insect wrapped in spider web

Technique: Confocal, Autofluorescence, Image Stacking

Magnification: 85x 10th Place: Ted Kinsman, Department of Imaging and Photo Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York Subject: Thin section of a dinosaur bone preserved in clear agate

Technique: Focus Stacking

Magnification: 10x 11th Place: Vitoria Tobias Santos, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Subject: Macrobrachium shrimp (ghost shrimp) eye

Technique: Stereomicroscopy

Magnification: 140x 12th Place: Pedro Barrios-Perez, CPFC (nanofabrication), National Research Council of Canada/Information and Communication Technologies, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Subject: Silicon dioxide on polydimethylglutarimide-based resist

Technique: Bright field microscopy

Magnification: 200x 13th Place: Michael Paul Nelson and Samantha Smith, Department of Pathology/Neuropathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham Subject: Mouse vertebra section

Technique: Focus Stacking

Magnification: 200x 14th Place: Zhong Hua, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland Subject: Peripheral nerves in E11.5 mouse embryo

Technique: Confocal

Magnification: 5x 15th Place: Christian Q. Scheckhuber, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany Subject: Podospora anserina (fungus) filamentous tip cells

Technique: Fluorescence

Magnification: 630x 16th Place: Geir Drange, Asker, Norway Subject: Pityohyphantes phrygianus (sheet weaver spider) with a parasitic wasp larva on the abdomen

Technique: Reflected Light, Focus Stacking

Magnification: 5x 17th Place: Alexandre William Moreau, Institute of Neurology, University College London, England Subject: Pyramidal neurons and their dendrites visualized in the visual cortex of a mouse brain

Technique: 2-Photon, Focus Stacking, Fluorescence, Patch clamp

Magnification: 40x 18th Place: Christian Sardet, Department of Life Sciences, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France Subject: Annelid larva

Technique: Darkfield

Magnification: 100x 19th Place: David Ward, dgward.com, Oakdale, California Subject: Nerve and muscle thin section

Technique: Brightfield, Image Stacking

Magnification: 40x 20th Place: James Burchfield, The Garvan Institute, Sydney, Australia Subject: The explosive dynamics of sugar transport in fat cells

Technique: Live Cell Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence

Magnification: 1,000,000X

Very small things can make a really big impression, if you look closely enough. This year's best microscope photos from the Nikon Small World contest will give you an eyeful of some of the amazing things you usually can't see at all.

More than 2,000 images from 80 different countries were entered in the 39th annual competition. The panel of judges that combed through all of them to find the best ones included scientists, journalists and microscope experts. The photos were judged on their originality, the information they conveyed, the technical skills that created them and their visual impact.

The winning image, by freelance photographer Wim van Egmond of The Netherlands, is an amazing view of a colony of marine diatoms, a type of phytoplankton. The colony is shaped like a hairy helical ribbon. To get all the detail and give a sense of three dimensions, Egmond used a technique called image stacking to piece together more than 90 images.

“I approach micrographs as if they are portraits. The same way you look at a person and try to capture their personality, I observe an organism and try to capture it as honestly and realistically as possible,” Egmond said in a press release from Nikon today. “At the same time, this image is about form, rhythm and composition. The positioning of the helix, the directions of the bristles, the subdued colors and contrast all bring together a balance that is both dynamic and tranquil.”

Here we have the top 20 images from this year's competition.