These award-winning microscope photos reveal a bizarre universe just out of reach

A colony of fungus in soil looks like a setting sun.

An impressive profile of a mouse embryo wall.

Anchor-like structures line the skin of sea cucumbers.

This dyed human hair is tied into a knot.

A great tit bird's down feathers shine like a rainbow under a microscope.

A bat fetus with see-through skin and bones.

Two Maestra butterfly eggs are nestled together on a leaf.

An orchid cuckoo bee shines like metal.

When you look at a daddy long-legs, these are the eyes looking back at you.

A close-up of a credit card's holographic logo.

Two weevils work at passing on their genetic inheritance.

This cartilage-like tissue was composed and colored to look like a Christmas tree.

Sensory hair cells (red) and neurons (green) reveal the structure of a rat cochlea (part of the inner ear).

This part of an embryonic chick brain is colored with the "brainbow" genetic technique.

These are spores of lily pollen.

Fungus grows on a tomato in this image.

Here's the full shot of that tapeworm head.

This Pac-Man-like photo is the third-place winner. It shows a colony of volvox algae bursting open.

This image came in second. It shows the seed-filled head of a groundsel flower.

This image won first place. It shows keratin structures in "immortalized" human skin cells, which are increasingly important tools for medical researchers.