The 2025 Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition has once again turned scientific study into visual poetry, spotlighting mind-boggling details of our world. Here are the winners who transformed research and discovery into wild moments of art.
- Overall & Microimaging Winner — Mesmerising spider threads by Martín J. Ramírez: a scanning-electron view of the net-casting spider’s silk strands in all their vivid, twisty otherworldliness.
- Astronomy — Dancing on the Edge of Fire by Imran Sultan: a molten, high-energy snapshot of the Sun’s chromosphere in full flare, revealing incredible, intricate details.
- Behavior — Prairie Chicken Jump Off by Peter Hudson: two male prairie chickens locked mid-air in a burst of territorial combat.
- Earth Science & Climatology — Scanning glaciers in the Antarctic winter by Michael Meredith: researchers lit against the glacial dark, illuminating a strange frozen landscape.
- Ecology & Environmental Science — Amphibian galaxy by Filippo Carugati: a translucent frog-egg sac glowing with a constellation of developing tadpoles.
View photos of the winners and the runners-up.