Hirari Ikeda, a well-known Harajuku street fashion personality, on the street in Shibuya. (Photo by Tokyo Fashion)

“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)

The northern lights, or aurora borealis, appear in the sky over the Bamburgh lighthouse at Stag Rock in Northumberland, England on September 28, 2016. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire via ZUMA Press)

A gilrl plays games in a shopping mall in Beijing, China, 24 November 2021. Demographers in China have called for more efficient implementation of supportive measures to encourage births to address the country's dwindling population growth as country's birthrate last year was 8.52 births per thousand people, the lowest level since 1978, according China Statistical Yearbook 2021. (Photo by Wu Hong/EPA/EFE)

These are the dunes of the Namib Desert, taken by Korea's Kompstat-2 satellite. The blue and white area is the dried riverbed of the Tsauchab river. (Photo by The European Space Agency)

This strange coral-looking specimen is actually a mushroom. The photo, “Beautiful Destroyer”, was taken in the Panamanian tropical rainforest where the mushroom produces nitrogen, an element vital to soil health. (Photo by Sarah A. Batterman)

People travel by tube on the London Underground to take part in the Pride in London parade, London, Saturday, July 1, 2023. (Photo by Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire via AP Photo)

A demonstrator uses a slingshot during a protest against Chile's government in Santiago, Chile on November 8, 2019. (Photo by Pablo Sanhueza/Reuters)