• Moths are unsung pollinators, that take over for the night shift while butterflies and bees are sleeping. Many moths, like butterflies, feed from the nectar of flowers, and in doing so, transfer pollen between flowers. At night, hawk moths (also called sphinx moths), buzz between flowers like little nocturnal hummingbirds. This is the face and proboscis (tongue) of a giant sphinx moth, Cocytius antaeus, covered in pollen, likely from Ipomoea alba, a morning glory that blooms at night and is pollinated by hawk moths. Photographed in Homestead, Miami-Dade Co., Florida.
    1st place: Pollinator by Lawrence Reeves
  • Plants sometimes develop their leaves or flowers far before we can see them, keeping them hidden from view while they grow. In the case of tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera), their leaves grow hidden within pairs of small, leaf-like organs called stipules. The large, elliptical shape that takes up most of the painting is a stipule, no more than an inch long, whose other half has been dissected away, revealing what is usually unable to be seen. Within the stipule lies a leaf, within that leaf lies a stipule, and within that stipule lies yet another leaf. In all, we can see five sets of leaves and stipules in this watercolor illustration, all of which are usually hidden from view, but nested within one another like Russian nesting dolls. Over the course of the growing season, the leaves will break free of their stipules as they expand, revealing what had previously been hidden.
    2nd place: The Russian Nesting Dolls of the Plant Kingdom by Annika Smith
  • Much like ducks use their body oil to keep their feathers from becoming waterlogged, water plants also employ various defenses to protect themselves from the water they live in. Salvinia (water ferns) float on the water, and the upper surfaces of their leaves are coated with dense hairs. Any water that is dripped on the top of the leaf forms a bead and runs off quickly, never reaching the surface of the leaf itself. Looking closely, we can see that the shape of the hairs is incredibly unusual— each individual hair is shaped like an egg beater. In the photograph, we can see the water-repellant properties of the egg-beater shaped hairs in action.
    3rd place: The Egg-Beater Hairs of the Water Fern by Annika Smith
  • The females of most mosquito species must feed from the blood of another animals in order to produce viable eggs. Each mosquito species has unique host-use patterns. Some are generalists that feed on a variety of host animals, while others are specialists that feed only from certain types of animals. Culex pilosus is a specialist of reptilian, and to a lesser extent, amphibian hosts. In Florida, this mosquito feeds primarily on Anolis lizards. This interaction, between a non-native brown anole, Anolis sagrei, and Culex pilosus was photographed at Blue Cypress Lake Conservation Area in Indian River County.
    3rd place: Brown anole and Culex pilosus by Lawrence Reeves
  • This picture captures the astounding beauty of Orion Nebula. It is a stellar nursery where new stars are being born. The chemical composition of the clouds and interstellar gas and dust result in a mesmerizing pink color. It lies in our galaxy- the Milky Way about 1,300 light-years from the Earth and spans across 30 light-years in diameter. Orion Nebula is nearly impossible to see with an unaided eye, but a single 45-second exposure with a telescope reveals the beauty of this cosmic gem.
    Honorable Mention: Cosmic elegance by Alma Spahic
  • Female mosquitoes in the genus Culex lay their eggs in clusters that float directly on the surface of a pond or other body of water. These egg rafts are easily overlooked as they are no more than a few millimeters long and look like nothing more than a speck of dust. Under magnification, the next generation of mosquitoes can be seen floating on a single drop of water.
    Honorable Mention: Gliding Across the Surface by Jonathan Bremer and Lawrence Reeves
  • When we encounter mosquitoes, they are often swatted away or crushed against the backs of our necks without much regard. When a bit more attention is afforded, they can often reveal themselves to be quite interesting and even beautiful. Most of the mosquitoes in our area are more or less covered in fine, hairlike scales. A few, such as Coquilletidia perturbans, can be recognized by their wide, two-toned scales that cover a large portion of the wings.
    Honorable Mention: Scales by Jonathan Bremer and Lawrence Reeves
  • Working as a natural history educator at the Florida Museum I often ask my camp children to slow down and observe the world around them with a careful eye. This past year, I made it my goal to hike 52 times, once per week, and on December 30th, 2018 the day I took this photo, I completed that goal! Like many of my previous hikes, I took advantage of the trails in and around Gainesville that we are so privileged to have access to and each time I tried to listen to my own advice that I give to campers. When I started my hike challenge in January 2018, I frequently stumbled into spider webs quite like this one destroying the precious webs with my hands and feet but mostly with my face. At the end of this challenge I’m proud to state that with an artistic eye, I've even taught myself to slow down and appreciate even the most delicate of nature's form.
    Spiderweb 2 by Chelsea Collison
  • Pictured is a larva of the genus Periphoba, a type of saturniid moth that include some of the largest moths in the world. This individual is doing what caterpillars do best - eating! Caterpillars need to eat constantly in order to get sufficiently large to metamorphose into adults. The fat individual pictured, about 15 cm in length, will soon develop a cocoon. Herbivory, or the consumption of plants as food, is also a key mechanism of nutrient cycling in tropical rainforest. This photograph was taken in the Peruvian Amazon jungle in 2015 during an expedition to study the feeding ecology of Amazonian fishes.
    Amazon Herbivory by Alexander Orfinger
  • Crystalline solids are distinguished by their long-range order, or translational periodicity. This implies the crystal’s atoms are genuinely arranged in a specific structural pattern which repeats at all orders of magnitude of the crystal. The figure above shows SEM micrographs (first three from top-left to bottom-left) and a supercell representation (bottom-right) of MIL-53, a metal organic framework (MOF). A unit cell is the smallest repeating structural pattern in the crystal, whereas a supercell is a representation of a collection of unit cells. MIL-53’s unit cell makes it possible for the crystals to have internal, rhombus-shaped channels which are aligned completely parallel to each other in one direction (bottom-right). The blue scale bar applies to the supercell model, whereas the white scale bar applies to all SEM micrographs. The supercell is shown at 2 different orientations and was made with VESTA software.
    Long-Range Order of Crystals by Andrew Garcia
  • This is a jumping spider imaged at 1500x magnification with a scanning electron microscope. The spider is sitting on is a carbon tab along with liquid graphite in order to ground the specimen and render it conductive for imaging with a high voltage electron beam.
    Henri the Spider by Nicole J. Machi
  • I am a climatologist and I created Core Melt as a visual representation of climate change. Three boards each contain 24 ice cubes made of soap. I poured the cubes in layers and embedded objects in some such as dirt and string. The cubes perch on boards marked with library-style codes so that rates of melt can be cataloged. The piece was displayed outdoors and the cubes melted color streaks across the board; some actually moved. Thus, the cubes are like glaciers where layers of snow are compressed each year as the glacier grows, and melting proceeds more quickly at the bottom as air temperatures rise. The previously-buried artifacts re-emerge as markers of the past. Scientists core ice and use dust, water, and air samples to reveal past climates. Earth’s ice is melting rapidly – the Arctic Ocean may be ice-free by 2040 and sea levels will continue to rise.
    Core Melt by Corene Matyas
  • For decades, exotic organisms have been imported in an effort to control pests. Many of these were released, deemed ineffective, and assumed extirpated. Recently, Campsomeris dorsata, which was imported to Florida to control cane beetles in the 1930's, was found to be established in natural areas all over South Florida.
    Campsomeris dorsata by Jonathan Bremer
  • An inverted digital x-ray of this specimen shows the entire skeletal structure. The species, a predator called Monocirrhus polyacanthus, is endemic to the Amazon Basin. Its leaf-like appearance and tendency to float snout-down in the water column gives it the common name Amazon Leaf Fish. This specimen was collected by the photographer in the Peruvian Amazon in 2015 in the course of research on food ecology of Amazon fishes.
    Inverted Leaf Fish Skeleton by Alexander Orfinger
  • Kalmia flowers have a highly unusual way of making sure that visiting pollinators are coated with their pollen: they turn their stamens into natural catapults. An unsuspecting bee visiting the flower will trip over the bent stamen, which will fly forward, releasing its pollen explosively all over the bee before it journeys to the next plant. This photograph shows the inside of Kalmia flower, where the two visible stamens are bent, spring-loaded with tension. The tension that drives the floral catapult is generated as the stamen grows in sync with the petal, the tip of the stamen nestled in a special pocket in the petal.
    Floral Catapults by Annika Smith
  • The warm color of agatized coral is caught with an underwater flashlight, illuminating marks of an organism that helped build the Florida peninsula and provides valuable ecosystem services to this day. It is also a reminder of our natural heritage that is tens of millions of years in the making.
    Fossil Glow by Conor MacDonnell
  • This parasite is a common
    A common visitor by Nicole Stacy
  • Mitochondria truly are powerhouse of the cell as they create the energy that our body requires to do almost everything. Each individual image is taken from a sample of heart tissue from Boxers and through electron microscopy, it enables us to see the inner portion of the mitochondria. The disease that I am researching is known as Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC). It involves fatty, fibrous infiltration of cardiac tissue which ultimately causes an arrhythmia. The color of each square is pertinent as it indicates those who were and those who were not affected by ARVC. The orange squares represent those affected and blue represent those unaffected. Both are images of cardiac tissue from the right ventricle. The gray mitochondria are samples from the left ventricle of the same Boxers, however it is unknown whether or not these canines were diagnosed with ARVC. If looked at closely, then one can see the structural differences amongst the orange squares compared to the blue. As separate entities, they are merely colored squares, but together they create a beautiful, powerful mosaic.
    Mitochondria are the Powerhouse of the Florida Gators by Chelsea Larkin
  • In this picture is a dragonfly called the Blue Dasher. The meaning of its name is
    Still Water by Denielle Smith
  • This is a urine sediment preparation of a healthy Sulcata tortoise showing variably sized radiant spheres consistent with urate crystals. These crystals are excreted to remove nitrogen-containing wastes from protein digestion. The presence of these crystals is a normal finding when examining urine from reptiles and offer a beautiful view through the microscope when polarized.
    Sparkles in tortoise urine by Nicole Stacy
  • Sometimes, what seems to be a simple, straightforward image hides a rabbit hole of unexpected difficulties and improvised solutions. Imaging the molted head capsules of Miami Blue (Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri) caterpillars turned out to be one of these unexpected situations that required borrowing extra microscopy equipment, improvising methods for calculating scale, and even fabricating minute manipulation tools from steel wire and drawn glass needles.
    Technical Difficulties by Jonathan Bremer
  • Water hyacinths (Eichhornia crassipes) are unsinkable plants. They were originally only found in the Amazon basin but are now considered invasive in waterways across the world. This photograph depicts the secret of the floating water hyacinths, the special tissue called aerenchyma that keeps air permanently within the plant itself, making it buoyant. The stalks of the leaves of the water hyacinths are filled with this spongy aerenchyma tissue, essentially turning each leaf into a floatation device. Adding to the beauty of the aerenchyma, under the lights of the microscope the translucent aerenchyma tissue becomes opalescent and as gossamer as the finest cobweb.
    How Water Hyacinths Float by Annika Smith
  • A male blue dasher (Odonata: Libellulidae) perching on a twig next to the little pond in the Natural Area Teaching Lab next to the Florida Museum of Natural History. They are vicious predators and eat almost 10% of the body weight daily. Males will perch to guard a female during oviposition. Females tap their abdomen into the water for about 30-40 seconds laying anything between 300-700 eggs.
    The Perch by Oliver Keller
  • Only a handful of mosquito species cause problems for humans, and, given the problems of those few bad apples, it's easy to overlook how fascinating mosquitoes can be. Globally, there are 3,685 described species, and each one is unique, and many have interesting stories to tell. For example: Aedes purpureipes and Aedes papago live exclusively in the Sonoran Desert, the latter has only been collected on a few occasions (it took me years to find that species!). Aedes baisasi lives inside the burrows of land crabs and mud lobsters, and feeds on mudskippers in Southeast Asia. Culex biscaynensis is known only from Fairchild Tropical Gardens in Miami. The larval habitats of Wyeomyia smithii and Wyeomyia vanduzeei are the water-holding leaves of purple pitcher plants and tank bromeliads, respectively. The hosts of Culex cedecei (named after the CDC) have shifted, likely in response to the impacts of Burmese pythons in Florida.
    Diversity of Mosquitoes by Lawrence Reeves
  • Electron Microscopy is the eyes of science. Microscopes can brings small things to where we can study them. For example these trichomes on a tomato plant is called a glandular trichomes are responsible for secreting a yellow substance that gives off that characteristic
    Trichome on tomato leaf done by Cryo SEM by Kim Backer-Kelley
  • Photography was the key to answering a decades-old question: what are the hosts of the mosquito Uranotaenia sapphirina. Mosquitoes feed from a variety of hosts: amphibians, birds, mammals, reptiles, even fish, and each species has unique host-use patterns. Hosts are determined by amplifying and sequencing DNA from blood meals. For Uranotaenia sapphirina, a common mosquito in the eastern U.S., such blood meal analyses fail to produce results; this has been the case in all investigations of this species. This was my experience as well, and after months tweaking PCR and extraction protocols, I became frustrated and spent a night in the field following around these mosquitoes with my camera. Macrophotographs from that night at River Styx, south of Gainesville, revealed the answer. Reviewing my photos, I was shocked to discover that, unlike any other mosquito studied to date, this species feeds on worm blood, findings that were published in 2018.
    Uranotaenia sapphirina: A mosquito that feeds on the blood of worms by Lawrence Reeves
  • Multicolored Asian Ladybeetle and Harlequin Ladybird are only a few of the many common names of Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), and its appearance is as variable. This beetle can be anything from red to orange to black, with or without spots, and over 30 different forms have been reported. This variability is perfectly reflected in this picture. The species is invasive to the US and is pushing out native species. It can be a nuisance to humans due to it hibernating in houses during the winter.
    Variability by Oliver Keller
  • This photo illustrates tension between two insects, the green lacewing and a tiny thrip, on the Mexican alvaradoa tree in my backyard. For some weeks, thrips had been voraciously sucking on the leaves of the tree uncontrolled by any predator. It wasn’t long until the opportunistic green lacewing discovered the thrips and was identified making the rounds in the garden. Lacewing larvae love feeding on thrips and other plant-sucking pests, so the tree naturally became a good site to lay eggs. I drew over the photograph some of the beautiful raised egg structures I saw and a hint of what an ultraviolet world might look like through the lacewing’s compound eyes. While I had learned about nature’s system of checks and balances in my classes before, it was exciting to observe these processes at work in my own garden.
    Lacewing Meets Thrip by Meylin Muniz
  • Subsistence fishing constitutes a major economy and food source for Amazonian communities. Here, Peruvian fisherman use a seine net to assist the photographer in sampling a
    Floating Meadow Fishing by Alexander Orfinger
  • The swiss cheese plant (Monstera) is a favorite house plant, with its huge, tropical, hole-ridden leaves. But how does the swiss cheese plant get its holes? What appears here as a gleaming unicorn horn is actually a very young Monstera leaf, less than a half an inch long, dissected from the center of the plant. The leaf is still an ivory color because it has not yet activated the green chloroplasts in its cells that makes it able to convert sunlight into sugar. The leaf resembles a unicorn horn because the sides of the leaf grow curled around a long middle axis before they expand when the leaf opens. Looking closely, the holes that give the swiss cheese plant its name are already visible in the tightly curled leaf. As the leaf grows through cell division, a process called programmed cell death causes the holes in the leaf. Eventually, when the leaf matures, turns green, and unfurls, the holes in the leaf surface will give the plant the distinctive appearance of a slice of swiss cheese.
    The Unicorn Horn at the Heart of the Swiss Cheese Plant by Annika Smith
  • It has been suggested that the epic Cremonese school of lutherie, defined by Andrea Amati and Antonio Stradivari, was incorporating geometric requirements which were based on alchemic principles, ultimately rooted in the Pythagorean school. Among such requirements there were specific measurements matching harmonic ratios and the Golden Ratio. This relatively recent guitar built in 1935 by the Cremonese luthier Luigi Digiuni shows a construction plan based on the Fibonacci spiral, which is an almost perfect approximation of the Golden Spiral. Also, the ratio between the outer profile and the inner profile equals 1.61, the Golden Ratio. These findings suggest that some esoteric principles of musical instrument construction may indeed have survived through the “dark ages” of Cremonese lutherie, presumably passed down by word of mouth from master to pupil or between members of the guilds. Right panel is identical to left panel, only the guitar was removed from the background.
    Logarithmic spirals by Massimo Maddaloni
  • Mitochondria truly are powerhouse of the cell as they create the energy that our body requires to do almost everything. Each individual image is taken from a sample of heart tissue from Boxers and through electron microscopy, it enables us to see the inner portion of the mitochondria. The disease that I am researching is known as Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC). It involves fatty, fibrous infiltration of cardiac tissue which ultimately causes an arrhythmia. The color of each square is pertinent as it indicates those who were and those who were not affected by ARVC. The orange squares represent those affected and blue represent those unaffected. Both are images of cardiac tissue from the right ventricle. The gray mitochondria are samples from the left ventricle of the same Boxers, however it is unknown whether or not these canines were diagnosed with ARVC. If looked at closely, then one can see the structural differences amongst the orange squares compared to the blue. As separate entities, they are merely colored squares, but together they create a beautiful, powerful mosaic.
    Mitochondria are the Powerhouse of the Florida Gators by Chelsea Larkin
  • Mitochondria truly are powerhouse of the cell as they create the energy that our body requires to do almost everything. Each individual image is taken from a sample of heart tissue from Boxers and through electron microscopy, it enables us to see the inner portion of the mitochondria. The disease that I am researching is known as Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC). It involves fatty, fibrous infiltration of heart tissue which ultimately causes an arrhythmia. The color of each square is pertinent as it indicates those who were and those who were not affected by ARVC. The orange squares represent those affected and blue represent those unaffected. If looked at closely, then one can see the structural differences amongst the orange squares compared to the blue. As separate entities, they are merely colored squares, but together they create a beautiful, powerful, geometric mosaic.
    Mitochondria are the Powerhouse of the Florida Gators by Chelsea Larkin
  • A female sculptured pine borer (Chalcophora virginiensis; Coleoptera: Buprestidae) is depositing her milky white egg mass in the trunk of a living pine tree. Here the larvae will hatch and live in the tree for at least two years feeding on the inside of the tree, leaving nothing but sawdust behind. After emergence a characteristic oval shaped hole is observable in the bark of the host pine.
    Circle of Life by Oliver Keller
  • The beautiful cells shown in this picture are fibroblasts that have been genetically engineered to act as heart cells in Doberman Pinschers with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a deadly disease. The vibrant, fluorescent colored dots in the image are both encapsulating and scientifically relevant. They represent segments of the RNA of the PDK4 gene, the gene responsible for causing dilated cardiomyopathy. The red colored probe attaches to the beginning of the gene, while the green colored probe only attaches if the gene has the disease producing mutation. The yellow color is created by overlapping of the green and red colors. The fibroblasts above are from a Doberman Pinscher that is heterozygous for the PDK4 mutation, creating the magnificent mosaic of colors. This image is not only one step in groundbreaking research to create a gene therapy to prevent DCM in Dobermans, but also fully displays the elegance of science.
    Cellular Beauty of In Situ RNA Hybridization by Seth Locker, Amara Estrada and Christina Pacak
  • This image is a collage of cross-sections through porcupine jaws (Erethizon dorsatum). The cross-sections are produced by micro-CT scanning, which captures thousands of x-ray images in order to reconstruct a digital, 3D copy of a specimen. That 3D information is commonly stored as a stack of cross-section images like a flipbook of x-rays from a doctor’s office. The stack produces unexpected views of familiar objects. A robust porcupine jaw strong enough to strip tree bark is transformed into lace-like trabecular (spongy) bone and outer rinds of cortical bone. The teeth stand out as bright, dense bands of enamel and wedges of softer dentin. The two central rings of the motif are layered repetitions of one v-shaped, symmetrical cross-section through both halves of a single jaw. The outer ring of pineapple motifs are each made of six mirrored repetitions of an oblique cross-section through one half of a jaw.
    Porcupine Lace by Natasha S. Vitek
  • Subsistence fishing constitutes a major economy and food source for Amazonian communities. Here, Peruvian fisherman travel in a characteristic motorized wooden canoe called a
    On The Move by Alexander Orfinger
  • Healthy communication is crucial to life as depicted in this image that appears to be passing footprints but is actually a colorized electron micrograph of mitochondria – intracellular transceivers. Although mitochondria (orange) are most well-known for the important role they play in the generation of energy for cells, they also transmit and receive vital signals to and from their surrounding environment. One example is the ability of mitochondria to communicate through calcium signaling with the rough endoplasmic reticulum that can be seen residing alongside mitochondria in this image (bumpy blue bilayers). This communication enables cells to adapt to changes in energy demand as more calcium transfer from the endoplasmic reticulum to mitochondria stimulates energy synthesis. In dire situations of intense stress, excessive transfer of calcium from the endoplasmic reticulum leads to mitochondrial calcium overload and triggers activation of mitochondrial-mediated cell death. The old adage is true – communication is key!
    Intracellular Transceivers by Christina A. Pacak
  • Mitochondria truly are powerhouse of the cell as they create the energy that our body requires to do almost everything. Each individual image is taken from a sample of heart tissue from Boxers and through electron microscopy, it enables us to see the inner portion of the mitochondria. The disease that I am researching is known as Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC). It involves fatty, fibrous infiltration of heart tissue which ultimately causes an arrhythmia. The color of each square is pertinent as it indicates those who were and those who were not affected by ARVC. The orange squares represent those affected and blue represent those unaffected. If looked at closely, then one can see the structural differences amongst the orange squares compared to the blue. As separate entities, they are merely colored squares, but together they create a beautiful, powerful, geometric mosaic.
    Mitochondria are the Powerhouse of the Florida Gators by Chelsea Larkin
  • Working as a natural history educator at the Florida Museum I often ask my camp children to slow down and observe the world around them with a careful eye. This past year, I made it my goal to hike 52 times, once per week, and on December 30th, 2018 the day I took this photo, I completed that goal! Like many of my previous hikes, I took advantage of the trails in and around Gainesville that we are so privileged to have access to and each time I tried to listen to my own advice that I give to campers. When I started my hike challenge in January 2018, I frequently stumbled into spider webs quite like this one destroying the precious webs with my hands and feet but mostly with my face. At the end of this challenge I’m proud to state that with an artistic eye, I’ve even taught myself to slow down and appreciate even the most delicate of nature's form.
    Spiderweb by Chelsea Collison
  • A digital x-ray of this specimen shows the entire skeletal structure. The species, a predator called Monocirrhus polyacanthus, is endemic to the Amazon Basin. Its leaf-like appearance and tendency to float snout-down in the water column gives it the common name Amazon Leaf Fish. This specimen was collected by the photographer in the Peruvian Amazon in 2015 in the course of research on food ecology of Amazon fishes.
    Leaf Fish Skeleton by Alexander Orfinger
  • Mitochondria truly are powerhouse of the cell as they create the energy that our body requires to do almost everything. Each individual image is taken from a sample of heart tissue from Boxers and through electron microscopy, it enables us to see the inner portion of the mitochondria. The disease that I am researching is known as Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC). It involves fatty, fibrous infiltration of heart tissue which ultimately causes an arrhythmia. The color of each square is pertinent as it indicates those who were and those who were not affected by ARVC. The orange squares represent those affected and blue represent those unaffected. If looked at closely, then one can see the structural differences amongst the orange squares compared to the blue. As separate entities, they are merely colored squares, but together they create a beautiful, powerful mosaic.
    Mitochondria are the Powerhouse of the Florida Gators by Chelsea Larkin
  • Thanatosis, or death-feigning is an anti-predator behavior exhibited by many animals. It is especially prevalent in weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). As I was trying to photograph this broad-nosed weevil (Epicaerus sp.) it sensed my presence and it rolled on its back pretending to be dead. Often this behavior also involves rolling of a leaf or flower to escape possible predation.
    Playing Dead by Oliver Keller

 

 

Videos

Oyster Reef Slow Motion by Conor MacDonnell

 

Sea of Grass by Conor MacDonnell

 

C elegans See Pieter Bruegel the Elder, or Problems of Mystic Positivism Movement III by Ernie Williams-Roby