The ‘Best Science Photos of the Year’ are all basically alien life forms

They look like nothing you’ve ever seen before

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The Wellcome Image Awards are being held on the 15th March to praise advancements in science, medicine and life. Awards are given to images that are striking, original and exposing the beauty behind science.

The finalists have been revealed, and the images are out of this world.

3D Printed Language Pathways in the brain

Credit: Stephanie J Forkel and Ahmad Beyh, Natbrainlab, King’s College London; Alfonso de Lara Rubio, King’s College London

Some use 3D printers to make guns. Some use 3D printers to make toys. At King’s College London, they use 3D printers to make Language Pathways that you find in your brain, and the result is visually quite stunning.

DNA from a Human Lung 

Credit: Ezequiel Miron, University of Oxford. Well

I’m fairly sure that this isn’t from a human lung. I’m almost certain that it is a scale taken from a 10,000 year old dragon. A rainbow dragon.

 

The Eye of a Zebrafish 

Credit: Dr Steve Wilson. Wellcome Images

This zebrafish eye looks like some strange and distant galaxy, with the pupil being  the sun. The detail is crazy. Although, being a zebrafish, why isn’t the image in black and white?

 

The Hawaiian Bobtail Squid

Credit: Macroscopic Solutions. Wellcome Images

The Hawaiian Bobtail Squid looks like an alien life form that is going to stick itself to your face and suck the life out of you. I don’t know if it’s the thrill of that danger, or the beautiful yellow/blue gradient in the background, but it’s stunning to look at.

 

Pigeon Blood Vessels

Credit: Scott Echols. Wellcome Images

This pigeon clearly decided to poo somewhere very bad in it’s first life, as it now looks like a tortured soul from the afterlife. Did you know, the incredibly complex blood-vessel system around it’s face and neck help to keep it warm?

 

The eye of a Mini-Pig

Credit: Peter M Maloca, OCTlab at the University of Basel and Moorfields Eye Hospital, London; Christian Schwaller; Ruslan Hlushchuk, University of Bern; Sébastien Barré

Everyone loves a mini-pig. They’re like pigs but, well, mini. Therefore an image of a mini-pig’s eye blown up to a crazy size is slightly disconcerting, but still fascinating.

 

You can view all of the images here.