The winners of a scientific microscopic imaging competition have been announced and, mesmerizingly, the winning photo brings to mind stars and other cosmic phenomena you’d expect to see depicted in an image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
This year marked the sixth installment of the Evident Image of the Year Award, a microscopy photography contest organized by microscope manufacturing company Evident (the new name for Olympus Microscopes).
The 2026 global winner was Katie Holden, an imaging specialist at the Cellular Imaging Core Facility (CICF) within the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine.
Her winning image, entitled Neuronal Cosmos, shows a cluster of stem-cell-derived, lab-grown neurons that self-organize into structures resembling the layered architecture of the human brain.
While neurospheres are particularly important to scientists as they enable research into the effects of environmental and genetic factors on brain development, Holden’s winning image seems more like a study of the universe.
Speaking to Evident about her winning image, Holden said: “Visually, the star-like pattern reflects intriguing parallels between astronomy and biology at hugely different scales.”
The winning image in the Materials Science category also unveiled a microscopic structure resembling a natural wonder of the macro world. Muhammad Tahir Khan’s image shows a lignin fiber — a biopolymer found in plants — that looks just like enormous golden desert dunes under a scanning electron microscope.
Three regional prizes were awarded to Gerd Günther (Germany/EMEA) for depicting chicory plant and pollen grain cells, Igor Siwanowicz (USA/Americas) for revealing mallow pollen cellular structures, and Kentaro Mochizuki (Japan/Asia Pacific) for capturing cellular structures from a rat heart.
The winners received scientific imaging equipment, including microscopes and microscope cameras from Evident, as well as recognition within the scientific imaging community.
All adults, both hobbyists and scientific professionals, who use light microscopes to capture photos are encouraged to enter Evident’s annual competition, with a panel of scientific experts judging the winners.
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