"Neurons in an expanded mouse brain" (3rd place) is also stunning:

https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2026-photomicrogra...

I didn't know brains actually look like this inside. Our world truly is beautiful, across all scales!

There is an interesting video of his rig for this shot in this article: https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/masters-of-microscopy/ole-bi...

It’s a great photo, but the second-place jumping spider is my favorite: it is just so adorable.

https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2026-photomicrogra...

When I first saw this photo I refused to believe it was real. This is just so otherworldly, it's fantastic.

Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50204697

The same photographer has two other photographs[^1] which previously were ranked highly in the contest. All seem to focus on chemical reactions and are stunning.

Interestingly, the previous two—of a candle and match—used 2.5x magnification, where as this one required 20x magnification, which just goes to show as to how tiny the printer mechanics really are.

[^1]: https://nikonsmallworld.com/people/ole-bielfeldt

Inkjet printers for their faults are some of the most insane technology that I can think of.

Pollen (second photo with the spider) looks so sinister!

Thanks for sharing - what an incredible perspective on the mundane. Seriously seems like peering into an alien world and really it's just what's happen while someone sips their coffee and stares at a wall haha.

Anyone seen Thirteenth Floor that old 90s VR movie? Really reminds me of the power for that.

Looks like this is the instragram page of the photographer for the inkjet photo.

It's very obviously not a standard inkjet printer setup, but if you poke around you'll see some custom rigs that make it come together.

I've been seeing this photo all over the place recently.

Next, I would like him to visualize the "macro" economy side of things too.