Every year, Nikon selects the most artful, scientifically enlightening and skillfully produced images from thousands of submissions for its Small World microscope photography contest. Tomorrow, another set of impressive winners will be announced for the contest's 40th year.
We're big fans of the competition here at WIRED, and I even had the honor of being on the judging panel in 2010. That year we pored over more than 2,000 images and deliberated at length before choosing an image of mosquito heart tissue as the winner.
In this gallery you can enjoy the winners from each year of the competition (unfortunately, the first two years aren't available online). If you still want more awesome photomicrography, browse the entire slate of winners from every year, or check out some of our galleries of photos and videos from previous years.
