A Drop of Life

 

The microscopic world is a cornucopia of beautiful images; most any finalist in Nikon's Small World contest or the Olympus Bioscapes Digital Imaging Competition deserves inclusion on this year-end image list. But if just one is to be picked, let it be this single-celled algae photographed by Marek Mis, conveying in its light and color the essences of life itself.

 

Beneath the specialized language and formal rigors of science is a simple, easily forgotten principle: Science is way of exploring the world, and our world is a fantastic place.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in the images that science generates: Spiders that build their own dummies, dinosaurs cloaked in feathers, berries of a color more intense than any other natural hue. Here are Wired Science's favorite images of the year.