An otherworldly microphotograph of bright blue slime mold on the surface of an autumn leaf has won this year’s Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition, which celebrates the power of photography to make scientific phenomena more accessible.
The winning photographer, Irina Petrova Adamatzky, researches the electrical activity of fungi, slime molds and other microorganisms at University of the West of England Bristol. While collecting mold samples in a field near her home, Adamatsky found her attention drawn to a simple leaf.
“I gathered it, along with my samples, and the following day I was amazed to discover what appeared to be another world within the confines of that unassuming leaf,” Adamatzky said in an artist’s statement. In her photo, titled “Martian landscape,” the mold’s iridescent spore-containing sporangia sprout from the leaf’s bumpy surface, which could indeed be easily mistaken for a landscape on another planet.
“The texture of the leaf and the iridescence of the sporangia create an artful composition highlighting the natural habitat of this slime mould that delivers an essential yet often under-appreciated ecosystem service—decomposing biomatter,” Ulrike Muller, a biology professor at California State University Fresno and one of this year’s judges, said in a statement.
Adamatzky nabbed the grand prize out of about 600 international entries, with “Martian landscape” also winning the contest’s microimaging category spotlighting hidden natural wonders. Judges selected winners in four other categories, as well: astronomy; behavior; earth science and climatology; and ecology and environmental science. See those stunning winning images below.
In addition to Muller, judges included Jon Blundy, a University of Oxford professor who primarily studies the generation and movement and evolution of magma within Earth. Duncan Mackay, a professor of applied mathematics and solar physics at the U.K.’s University of St Andrews, also judged submissions.
Royal Science Publishing puts out peer-reviewed science journals including Proceedings A and Biology Letters. It launched its photography competition in 2015 to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the oldest continual scientific journal in the world, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. The Covid-19 pandemic put the contest on hold for four years, but it’s back in full force with swirling nebulas, glowing nighttime coral reefs and other natural wonders.
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