A worker covers mounds of rice with a giant hat-shaped bamboo cone in a field in Brahmanbaria, Bangladesh on September 21, 2023 after they have been dried in the scoring sun. (Photo by Joy Saha/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

“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)

A performer dances at a housing exhibition in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, September 27, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A woman takes part in the procession of the “Virgem da Atalaia” procession during Holy Week at Alcochete, near Lisbon, Portugal March 27, 2016. Women ride on donkeys during the “Virgem da Atalaia” procession, that has been held annually for about 400 years. In the past, only single women rode the donkeys to ask for help from the Virgin to find a husband. (Photo by Rafael Marchante/Reuters)

Lowry Park Zoo elephants Matjeka, 23, and her 1-year-old daughter, Mavi, apply a liberal coating of “sunscreen” to themselves in a clay mud wallow at the park Tuesday, August 12, 2014, in Tampa, Fla., on the park's first observation of World Elephant Day to raise awareness of the wild African elephant crisis. “Elephants are prone to being sunburned”, said associate curator Chris Massaro. “What they need is lot of mud or clay to roll around in and cover up their skin so it will protect it from the sun”. (Photo by Cherie Diez/AP Photo/The Tampa Bay Times)

People dressed in traditional costumes sing Christmas carols as they gather to celebrate Orthodox Christmas at a compound of the National Architecture museum in Kyiv, Ukraine on January 7, 2022. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

Femen activists with their bare chests reading “Fascists out of ballot boxes” are held back by Catalan regional police forces Mossos d'Esquadra as they protest against far-right Vox party candidates in Barcelona during regional elections in Catalonia on February 14, 2021. Catalonia is voting in an election overshadowed by the pandemic which Madrid hopes will unseat the region's ruling separatists more than three years after a failed bid to break away from Spain. (Photo by Lluis Gene/AFP Photo/Profimedia)

A runner takes part in the International World's coldest marathon at minus 53 degrees (–63.4 Fahrenheit) near Oymyakon, the republic of Sakha, also known as Yakutia, Russian Far East, Saturday, January 22, 2022. Sixty five runners, including athletes from the United Arab Emirates, United States and Belarus, started the run at extremely low temperature in Oymyakon, Yakutia's Pole of Cold. The international team of men and women ran full distance and half-marathon. (Photo by Ivan Nikiforov/AP Photo)