The Nikon Small World photomicrography competition celebrates images captured using a light microscope, and this year's was judged by six panelists, ranging from magazine photo directors to scientists and professors.

With 2024 marking its 50th year, the competition's top spot was awarded to Dr. Bruno Cisterna, with assistance from Dr. Eric Vitriol of Augusta University, whose images of differentiated mouse brain tumor cells showed how disruptions to the cytoskeleton lead to diseases like ALS and Alzheimer's.

Here are Dr. Cisterna and this year's other top 10 winners' photos.

10th: Jan Martinek (Charles University)

^{[Spores of black truffle (Tuber melanosporum)]}

9th: Jan-Oliver Dum (Medienbunker produktion)

^{[Pollen in a garden spider (Araneus) web]}

8th: Stephanie Huang (Victoria University of Wellington)

^{[A neuron densely covered in dendritic spines from the striatum of an adult rat brain]}

7th: Gerhard Vlcek (Maria Enzersdorf, Austria)

^{[Cross section of European beach grass (Ammophila arenaria) leaf]}

6th: Henri Koskinen (Helsinki University)

^{[Slime mold (Cribraria cancellata)]}

5th: Thomas Barlow and Connor Gibbons (Columbia University)

^{[Cluster of octopus (Octopus hummelincki) eggs]}

4th: Dr. Amy Engevik (Medical University of South Carolina)

^{[Section of a small intestine of a mouse]}

3rd: Chris Romaine (Kandid Kush)

^{[Leaf of a cannabis plant. The bulbous glands are trichomes. The bubbles inside are cann]}

2nd: Dr. Marcel Clemens (Verona, Veneto, Italy)

^{[Image stacking for the pin and wire combined with long exposure for the electrical arcs]}

1st: Dr. Bruno Cisterna and Dr. Eric Vitriol (Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University)

^{[Differentiated mouse brain tumor cells (actin, microtubules, and nuclei)]}