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See 17 Intricate Microscope Photographs That Make the Miniature World Immense. They Won the Evident Image of the Year Contest

The sixth annual competition showcases scientific microscopic imaging, illuminating tiny parts of nature, from individual cells to arthropods, diatoms and a zebrafish brain

a circle of small disparate cells in various shapes that look like snowflakes, circles, triangles and more
a circle of small disparate cells in various shapes that look like snowflakes, circles, triangles and more
One-celled algae called diatoms are unique because their cell walls are made of transparent silica, like glass, allowing their internal patterns to be visible. Diatoms are key producers of atmospheric oxygen and uphold the aquatic food chain. © Jan Rosenboom, Evident Image of the Year 2026

See 17 Intricate Microscope Photographs That Make the Miniature World Immense. They Won the Evident Image of the Year Contest

The sixth annual competition showcases scientific microscopic imaging, illuminating tiny parts of nature, from individual cells to arthropods, diatoms and a zebrafish brain

a circle of small disparate cells in various shapes that look like snowflakes, circles, triangles and more
One-celled algae called diatoms are unique because their cell walls are made of transparent silica, like glass, allowing their internal patterns to be visible. Diatoms are key producers of atmospheric oxygen and uphold the aquatic food chain. © Jan Rosenboom, Evident Image of the Year 2026

From grains of pollen to insects less than a millimeter long, scientists get incredible views of the world by looking through a microscope. And as researchers conduct their studies, sometimes they find a small-scale scene that’s not just scientifically valuable—it also takes your breath away. That’s when they’ll snap a picture.

As a way to honor those moments that blend the artistic and scientific sides of microscope photography, the Evident Image of the Year contest has recognized its sixth annual group of winners that reveal some of the world’s tiniest wonders.

“This contest celebrates what’s possible when art and science come together to illuminate the unseen,” Wes Pringle, CEO of Evident, the microscope company that leads the competition, says in a statement. “We are deeply inspired by the creativity and technical mastery reflected in this year’s entries.”

Submissions came in from 34 countries this time around, and a panel of judges selected their favorites based on the visual appeal, scientific impact and microscope proficiency of each photograph. The company announced its winners in late April.

Katie Holden of the United Kingdom emerged as the global winner for her image of neurons that look strikingly like a star, titled “Neuronal Cosmos.” It captures neurospheres, or clustered neural cells grown in a laboratory from pluripotent stem cells, which can be coaxed to develop into any sort of cell in the body. Neurospheres are key to studying brain cells and can shed light on how genetics and the environment affect neurons’ development.

a bright blue orb with a darker blue-purple outer orb of small tendrils of brain cells
Clusters of lab-grown brain cells, or neurospheres, derived from stem cells form a blue and purple orb that looks to have cosmic origins. © Katie Holden, Evident Image of the Year 2026

“Visually, the star-like pattern reflects intriguing parallels between astronomy and biology at hugely different scales,” Holden says in the statement. “Given that I spend a fair bit of time advocating that microscopy isn’t just pretty pictures, it is really nice to lean into it when we can,” she adds on LinkedIn, noting that the photograph was a team effort.

In the materials science category, Muhammad Tahir Khan of Ireland earned the winning spot for a scanning electron microscope image of a lignin fiber that looks like colorful sand dunes. Lignin is found in the cell walls of many plants, especially in wood and grass. Old books get their specific scent from chemicals produced when lignin decomposes.

orange and pink material that looks to be a desert landscape from above
Lignin, an abundant large molecule, is found in wood, grass and most land plants. © Muhammad Tahir Khan, Evident Image of the Year 2026

Evident also selected three regional winners and 12 honorable mentions. The resulting gallery encourages “people around the world to look at scientific images in a new way, appreciate their beauty and share images with others,” per the statement.

Here are the stunning photographs honored in this year’s contest.

blue tendrils rise from the bottom, while five orbs with points around their perimeters, one much larger than the rest, float above or sit on the tendrils
Pollen grains from a mallow plant sit on the stigma of a flower. This photograph won the regional contest for the Americas. © Igor Siwanowicz, Evident Image of the Year 2026
green, red and blue lines form zipper-like structures side to side
Sarcomeres—the basic, repeating components that make up muscle tissue—within a rat heart. This photograph won the regional contest for Asia-Pacific. © Kentaro Mochizuki, Evident Image of the Year 2026
a spiraling, hairy looking purple tendril curls around several small blue orbs
A stigma from a chicory flower with pollen grains, shown in blue. This photograph won the regional contest for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. © Gerd Günther, Evident Image of the Year 2026
close up of two spider eyes that shine in green, orange and purple. Some hairs are visible around their perimeter
Jumping spiders each have eight eyes, and the most prominent pair is located in the middle front and called the anterior median pair. Here, the anterior median eyes of a jumping spider are seen close up. © Walter Ferrari, Evident Image of the Year 2026
a brain structure seen from slightly above, with purple tendrils throughout the center
The brain of an adult zebrafish. Studying these small, black and white creatures drives many neuroscientists, as they can reveal insights about emotions, sleep and more. © Hannah Somers, Evident Image of the Year 2026
colorful cells on either side connected by green and white tendrils
Commissural axons (shown here in a chick embryo) send messages across the midline of the central nervous system, connecting the right and left hemispheres across the brain and traversing the spinal cord. © Alexandre Dumoulin, Evident Image of the Year 2026
three barbs stick into fine fibers, looking like a trident or hand rake
The flowering plant known as black-jack or beggarticks (Bidens pilosa) has barbed structures that stick to fur, feathers or clothing and lead to its seed dispersal. Here, some of those barbs are attached to a pair of stockings. © Hange Du, Evident Image of the Year 2026
pink background with darker brown areas that look to drip from the top
A cell from a mouse brain is marked with the green fluorescent protein (GFP), which is found in jellyfish and used widely in research to track cells due to its ability to glow under ultraviolet light. © Marko Pende, Evident Image of the Year 2026
a shrimp-like creature shown as a colorful outline on a black background
Before ten-legged crustaceans like crabs take their well-known adult form with a hard shell, they have a larval phase where they float freely and are called zoeae. This image captures a crab zoea. © Tong Zhang, Evident Image of the Year 2026
four eyes of a jumping spider, its mouth and part of its front legs, marked with a few yellow dots of pollen, including one on its eye
A front view of a jumping spider with some pollen grains, shown in yellow © Javier Rupérez, Evident Image of the Year 2026
a spherical cell with an orange perimeter and blue interior with pink at the center
A fibroblast, or type of cell that helps form connective tissue, seen in a mouse embryo. These cells are key to healing wounds, and they help produce collagen, an abundant protein that provides structural support. © Joe McKellar, Evident Image of the Year 2026
a small brown wasp with two wings that look like peacock feathers
A fairyfly, one of a group of miniature wasps that includes the world's smallest insect. Many of these animals are just a fraction of a millimeter long. © Hanyang Xue, Evident Image of the Year 2026
a network of cells up against one another, illuminated in different colors
This image captures dying superficial epithelial cells—those that act as shields, covering internal and external surfaces of the body—during osmotic stress, which results in water passing in or out of the cells. © Yue Rong Tan, Evident Image of the Year 2026
green branch with lots of purple cells around it
Fluorescent immunostained brain tissue from a mouse model with Alzheimer's disease. Immunostaining can help identify a certain protein and diagnose various diseases or cancers. © Bettina Rákóczi, Evident Image of the Year 2026

Carlyn Kranking is Smithsonian magazine’s associate web editor for science.

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