A vendor holds a fried spider along a street in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, April 10, 2017. (Photo by Samrang Pring/Reuters)

A worker carries a bag of peeled carrots on her head outside a vegetable market in La Trinidad, Benguet in northern Philippines August 6, 2016. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)

A mother and her daughter shop for bananas at a market in Bangkok, Thailand, March 31, 2016. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Women wait for customers at the fish harbour in Kasimedu Fish market, Chennai, India, on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Riya Mariyam R./Reuters)

“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 Russian digital artist Svetlana Petrova has taken her love of cats to the next level – by adding her furry friend to some of the world's greatest artwork. Svetlana has placed photos of her tabby, called Zarathustra, posing alongside the most well-known pieces in history for her UK exhibition. (Photo by Svetlana Petrova/Zarathustra the Cat)