Small world on the big screen

Movie-goers have always looked to France for slick, beautifully photographed drama, but in general the stars are human. The movie Microcosmos, from which the images above are taken, has a cast almost entirely made up of insects. Entomologists Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou made the movie in an attempt to bring their research to a wider audience. They've achieved that beyond the wildest dreams of most biologists. The movie, which won five French César awards this year, has been wowing audiences in Europe. It's been the biggest French success in Germany since Delicatessen, attracting more than 525 000 movie-goers. (Microcosmos is distributed in the UK by Guild Pathe.) Microscopists are in the unique position of being able to encapsulate great science with a single image. The data may be complex, but the visualization can be breathtaking. Now, Olympus has joined forces with Current Biology to offer a state-of-the-art digital camera for the best photomicrograph. We're not just looking for bright colours and strong imagery — though they might help — we want good science simply visualized, in any application, on any system. The winning entry will receive one of the new Olympus CAMEDIA digital cameras, the first film-free image recording and storage system for the leisure user. Send your images, with a brief description of the subject and method, to: The 1997 Olympus–Current Biology photomicrography competition