From neon mosquitoes to winged migrations, top images captured by scientists
Lee Haines, a vector biologist at the University of Notre Dame peers into a microscope at a mosquito. "It looks like I'm traveling through space, doesn't it?" she asks of the photo, a winning image in the Scientists at Work photo contest. Shayanta Chowdhury hide caption For new
Lee Haines, a vector biologist at the University of Notre Dame peers into a microscope at a mosquito. "It looks like I'm traveling through space, doesn't it?" she asks of the photo, a winning image in the Scientists at Work photo contest. Shayanta Chowdhury hide caption
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A conservation and research group called Waldrappteam was nearing the end of a remarkable undertaking — escorting a flock of 36 northern bald ibises along their migratory route from southeastern Germany to the highlands of southern Spain.
The northern bald ibis has a ruddy bill and a crest of feathers that look like an intermittent mohawk. It disappeared from Europe some 400 years ago due to overhunting.
But, says Gunnar Hartmann , an undergraduate majoring in biogeoscience at the University of Koblenz in Germany, another population of the ibises was found living in Syria and Morocco a century ago. Scientists at the time brought some of the birds to Europe to rear their chicks in captivity where they can form bonds with their human handlers. Now scientists teach them to migrate, guiding them along their 1,700-plus-mile route.
In the fall of 2024, Hartmann joined Waldrappteam for 50 days as they flew an ultralight aircraft across southern Germany, France and Spain, showing the latest group of ibises their way.
Ibises take flight, led by scientists in an ultralight aircraft in this image which was the overall winner of this year's Scientist at Work photography competition sponsored by the journal Nature . Gunnar Hartmann hide caption
It was on a cool, rosemary-scented morning in Spain, in the town of Jaén in Andalusia, that Hartmann, who was the project's photographer, snapped an image with his camera that would become the overall winner of this year's Scientist at Work photography competition sponsored by the journal Nature . The winners were announced Wednesday.
