Started in 1974, the Nikon Small World Competition has been recognizing excellence in photography through the microscope.

"A photomicrograph is a technical document that can be of great significance to science or industry. But a good photomicrograph is also an image whose structure, color, composition, and content is an object of beauty, open to several levels of comprehension and appreciation."

Today, we're taking a look at a selection of palettes from the top photos in the 2009 competition.

This Year's Winners

Inspiration

See another post about microscopic color here.