“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”. – OlympusBioScapes

Photo: Pretarsus of the third leg of a female drone fly (Eristalis tenax), ventral view, by Dr. Jan Michels, Institute of Zoology, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany. (Photo by Olympus BioScapes)

What would superheroes do if they had a part time job? Well… besides fighting crime, the powers of most superheroes aren’t exactly very useful. Sure, Flash would make a great delivery boy, delivering the freshest pizza in the world, while Thor might turn out to be a great smith (though judging by the way he handles his mallet, it is very unlikely), but in the end of the day, all these things are pretty useless. It sure is hard being a superhero when you have no villains to catch; especially if the only superpower that you have is lighting yourself on fire. Reducing you to a mere job of being used as fuel for cooking grilled chicken. Besides, it’s not exactly useful for catching villains either, if you don't plan on burning them alive… (Photo by Chow Hon Lam)

Photographer Pierre-Louis Ferrer shows viewers the beauty of France in a whole new light, shooting the country in beautiful infrared. Ferrer’s images are as enchanting as they are intriguing, displaying a whole new variation of color in shrubs, grass and trees, as well as famous landmarks. In some of Ferrer’s works, the foliage is an eye-catching canary yellow – a stark contrast to the more normal shades in the remainder of the images. In other works, whole forests glow red, giving the French countryside an otherworldly look. (Photo by Pierre-Louis Ferrer/Caters News Agency)

All the people we meet, all the things we know, and all of our experiences shape our souls, forever marking our faces. This was probably the main idea of the performance piece created by Chinese artist Zhang Huan, in which his face was painted over by three calligraphers with the names of people he knew, personal stories, and random thoughts. Truly, it amazing just how much we can find out about a person just by looking at their face. Surely, not everyone has the ability to see into the soul of the person just by looking at their face, but those that do can easily see the person’s personality, their intelligence, and sometimes even get glimpse into their past. Though it sounds like magic to people who don’t have this ability, it is completely true. Somehow, our mind can pick up on the miniscule changes of the facial structure and figure out the dominant facial expressions of that person. (Photo by Zhang Huan)

A debutante from a local academy looks at her mobile phone as she waits to take part in the Vienna Ball at the Kempinski Hotel, March 19, 2016, in Beijing. The ball, which is an event organized by the luxury Kempinski Hotel chain and the City of Vienna, brings together both Chinese and foreign members of the capital's elite class. Despite a slowing economy, private wealth has soared in China after decades of rapid growth. A record number of high net worth individuals and families has fuelled a market for luxury goods, services, and events catering to China's burgeoning elite class. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Kung Fu master Li Liangui practices “Suogugong” Kung Fu and his wife Liang Xiaoyan (R) practices Qigong at a park in Beijing, China, June 30, 2016. For 50 years, kung fu master Li Liangui has been contorting his body into eye-watering positions while practising one of the more unusual and less popular Chinese martial art forms. The 70-year-old is an expert in suogugong, or body shrinking kung fu, where practitioners dislocate their bones to help them achieve unlikely positions and feats. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Figure skating couple Madison Chock and Evan Bates, of the USA, practice their dance routine during a training session at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, February 3, 2022, in Beijing. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)