Ink droplets in motion snag top prize in Nikon Small World contest

"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.

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

I truly thought this photo was AI, wow!

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.