Festival goers wear Australia day attire at Big Day Out 2012 at the Sydney Showground on January 26, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Team McLaren Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton (L) and Jenson Button unveil the new MP-27 Formula 1 car at the McLaren technology centre on February 1, 2012 in Woking, England. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
San Diego Comic-Con International, also known as Comic-Con International: San Diego, and commonly known as Comic-Con or the San Diego Comic-Con, was founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention and later the San Diego Comic Book Convention in 1970 by Shel Dorf and a group of San Diegans.
Photo: Comic-Con International: San Diego 2012. (Photo by Eddric Lee)
A white whale wears a wreath at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, Japan, on October 3, 2012. (Photo by Associated Press)
A young anoa, also known as midget buffalo, named Tycoon runs around at the Zoo in Berlin, Germany, on November 9, 2012. (Photo by Maurizio Gambarini/EPA)
Miss USA Alyssa Campanella arrives at the 2nd Annual American Giving Awards at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on December 7, 2012 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)
Microscope images forge an extraordinary bond between science and art, said Hidenao Tsuchiya, Olympus America's Vice President and General Manager for the Scientific Equipment Group. We founded this competition to focus on the fascinating stories coming out of today's life science research laboratories. The thousands of images that people have shared with the competition over the years reflect some of the most exciting work going on in research today – work that can help shed light on the living universe and ultimately save lives. We look at BioScapes and these beautiful images as sources of education and inspiration to us and the world