The Nikon Small World 2025 competition has announced its winners, celebrating the most beautiful images of the microscopic world. Chinese photographer Zhang You claimed first place with his remarkable image of a rice weevil, a small beetle, perched on a grain of rice with wings spread and its proboscis turned toward the camera lens.
For over fifty years, this prestigious event has highlighted the beauty of the invisible world by rewarding the best photographs taken through optical or electronic microscopes from around the globe. This year's edition featured more than 1,900 entries from 77 countries, judged based on their originality, technical rigor, and visual impact.
Zhang You, a member of the Entomological Society of China, assembled more than 100 photographs to achieve perfect sharpness of his subject, following two weeks of post-processing work. The photographer also shared his fortune in observing this insect, invisible to the naked eye, in such a position: "I had already observed weevils on grains before, but never one with spread wings. This one was found on a window sill. Perhaps it was a final attempt to escape." The artist also secured 15th place in the rankings with an image of a looper moth captured while laying eggs.
Second place was awarded to Jan Rosenboom from Germany for his image of Volvox, a colony of unicellular algae, in a water droplet. In third place, John-Oliver Dum, also from Germany, was recognized for capturing pollen trapped in a spider web, a scene that could only be revealed through a 20x objective lens.
James Hayes from the United States earned fourth place with his image of dividing cardiac cells, while Igor Siwanowicz secured fifth place with tropical fern spores. Both the American and Polish photographers were double winners. Hayes closed out the top 10 alongside his colleague Dylan Burnett for their image of cardiac cells in metaphase, where chromosomes appear in bright yellow. Siwanowicz took eighth place for his fascinating image showing pollen parasitized by a fungus.
Additionally, Francisco Lázaro-Diéguez's rat liver cells (6th place), Stella Whittaker's sensory neurons (7th place), and Wim van Egmond's fungus with diffuse red pigments (9th place) captivated the jury, proving that beauty exists even in the infinitely small. The competition continues to demonstrate that the microscopic world holds wonders that rival any visible landscape, showcasing the artistic potential of scientific photography.
