1st Place Electron Microscopy - Life Sciences Aberrant RBC in severely debilitating neurological disease Alberto Foglia

2nd Place Electron Microscopy - Life Sciences Vacuoles in Cell Culture fixed with 2.5% Glutaraldehyde and embedded in Epon Elisabeth Schraner

1st Place Electron Microscopy - Physical Sciences Cuboidal Ni3Al precipitates (edge length ~400 nm) in a Ni-based single-crystal superalloy. These precipitates are the source of the outstanding strength of superalloys at high temperatures, enabling the operation of turbine blades in the extreme environments within jet engines. The sample (provided by BIAM) was etched to reveal the precipitates. Alessandro Piglione

2nd Place Electron Microscopy - Physical Sciences The modern world needs novel ways to harvest energy. Pictured is a niobium based, nanostructured photocatalyst which is investigated for production of hydrogen by solar energy. A one-step synthesis with trace amounts of titanium yields eye-catching morphologies that are imaged with a scanning electron microscope and subsequently colorized. Thomas Gänsler

1st Place Light Microscopy - Life Sciences A fixed Octopus bimaculoides embryo that was detached from its yolk. Red is labelling an actin cytoskeleton (phalloidin) that is important for various cellular processes, magenta - extracellular matrix glycoprotein needed for cells to properly migrate and attach (fibronectin) and green is labelling a protein pax3, that is an important driver of nervous system development. Octopus is an invertebrate that has evolved a complex nervous system, which is anatomically very different from ours. However, it displays a variety of similar features, such as short and long term memory. Therefore, comparing development of octopus and vertebrate animal nervous system has a potential of unravelling the basic principles of a complex nervous system emergence. The tiled image was acquired using the confocal Zeiss microscope (710) during the Embryology course 2018 in the MBL in Woods Hole and animals were supplied by Carrie Albertin. The scale bar on the bottom left corner corresponds to 0.5 mm. Martyna Lukoseviciute

2nd Place Light Microscopy - Life Sciences Four small brain cells (in green) exhibit a wide variety of responses to the concentrated microdots of the protein Netrin-1 (red) they are growing on - some grow bristles or long sheet-like processes, while others shrink or avoid it entirely. A heavily branched mature cell known as an "astrocyte" lurks in the corner. Daryan Chitsaz

1st Place Light Microscopy - Physical Sciences Image of a Paracetamol Crystal grown onto a glass slide. Due to the polarised light used different colours are exhibited in the crystal structure. The image was compiled using 56 individual frames at 400x magnification. Alexandru Moldovan

2nd Place Light Microscopy - Physical Sciences This photomicrograph shows a 6 rayed star of golden rutile needles radiating from a black ilmenite core beautifully preserved in smoky quartz. The horizontal field of view is 18mm. Nathan Renfro

1st Place Other This compound eye of a tropical orchid bee (Euglossa imperialis) is composed of thousands of individual facets. Here, micro-CT reveals the lens at the surface of every facet, as well as each underlying light guide and photoreceptor. Orchid bees have evolved large eyes that allow them to use vision to navigate through dim, cluttered tropical forests. Imaged in the I13-2 beamline at the Diamond Light Source. Gavin Taylor

1st Place Scanning Probe Microscopy Metal-organic polymer nanoribbon electrically contacted by a Few-Layer Graphene (FLG) sheet. The extraordinary electrical and mechanical behavior of graphene make it an ideal material to contact nano-objects. Note as well the different bending rigidities of the FLG sheet according to the different number of graphene layers covering the nanoribbon. Pablo Ares

2nd Place Scanning Probe Microscopy Scattering-Scanning Near field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) image of a Au nanostructure. Image shows light absorption at 966 cm-1. Héctor Corte-León

People's Choice The micrograph depicts several fibres pushed out of a SiC/SiC Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMC's) on the unpolished side of the material - thus resembling skyscraper-like features of an abandoned city amidst long deserted roads. Fibres are pushed out in tows - i.e. a collection or bundle of fibres oriented in one direction. The shallow depth-of-field was purposefully chosen so as to mimic far-distances in the horizon. The instrument used was a Zeiss EVO with a probe current of 2nA and accelerating voltage of 10KeV. Robin De Meyere