you're looking at a tardigrade the
world's most indestructible organism and
this is a squid tentacle most of us
think we know what the world around us
looks like but that same world looks
very different underneath the microscope
this is the unseen world this video was
captured by biologist Philippe lassoo
using a custom-built
low-light microscope and it won first
prize in nikon's small world in motion
competition
it's a staghorn coral polyp emerging
into the world you can even see the pink
algae living inside the coral the polyp
images are part of a study to help find
ways to protect and conserve coral in
the future but the second-place winner
had a very different approach that is a
dead ko Peapod a type of marine plankton
and it's filled with parasites
erratically swimming about they
gruesomely make their way into the
plankton and consume it from within in
third place was this hypnotizing video
here you can see a style and nikkia a
microorganism often found in freshwater
it's creating a water vortex with its
cilia but this isn't just for fun that
vortex will in fact help them catch
their next delicious meal coming in at
fourth place is nature's most
indestructible creature the tardigrade
and specifically tardigrades from a
freshwater spring in Florida here to
tardigrades are seen eating alive a
rather unlucky third one talk about a
rough day now in fifth place is this
detailed footage of a mouse embryo you
can see the progression of neural tubes
folding and closing and with this
research scientists can begin to
understand how mammalian tissues and
organs form
but that's not all there were hundreds
of video entries this year and with them
were plenty of honorable mentions worthy
of a place on the podium no these iron
filings haven't come alive and
choreographed a dance routine they are
moving in the presence of a magnetic
field
speaking of dance moves this little
critter has the worm nailed mainly
because it is one the larvae of a poly
keto worm and that wasn't the only
strange-looking creature to feature in
the list this is the skeleton shrimp
similar to a caterpillar it moves
through the water by bending and
stretching its body then you have the
stink bug seen here entering the world
from its shell it's perhaps the start of
a fruitful career bringing pungent
smells into the world these are long
thin inshore squid tentacles and those
spots are chromatophores or pigment
cells squids can change these cells in
seconds enhancing their camouflage this
psychedelic video is a frog cell and
rippling across it traveling in waves is
protein activity which help get the cell
ready for future cell division which
believe it or not is exactly what's
happening here that's a whole bunch of
muscle tissue cells dividing all these
videos were finalists of the 2019 small
world in motion competition and with the
constant advancements in technology you
can only imagine how inspiring the
microscopic images of the future will be
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