Minuscule 'mouse' says 'Cheese' in microscopic photography competition

A tiny underwater creature that bears a startling resemblance to a cartoon mouse won this year's Olympus Bioscapes microscopic photography competition, after photographe r Charles Krebs captured a tiny, mouse-like 'rotifer' creature.
But the runners-up were even more mind-bending - including a time-lapse video of cress roots growing that looks like it comes from another galaxy, and a fly-through of a mouse brain in 3D.

The Rotifer was captured by Charles Krebs to win this year's Olympus Bioscapes microscopic photography competition

This isn't an alien life form: it's a still from a video of the roots of a cress plant developing over 75 hours

This isn't an alien life form: Live green brain coral (Goniastrea sp.), under water. One full polyp in the center is shown with four surrounding polyps.

This is not a delicious bunch of fruit hanging from a stem: The image, captured by Gunnar Newquist of Nevada, is
a close-up of the ovaries of a fruit fly

Stink bug eggs. Stink bugs are agricultural pests that exist throughout the world. When disturbed, they emit acharacteristic foul-smelling odor.

Now in its eighth year, the Olympus BioScapes Competition awards prizes of microscopic images and movies of human, plant and animal subjects as captured through light microscopes.
Any life science subject is eligible, and entries are judged based on the science they depict, their aesthetics (beauty and impact of the image), and their technical expertise.

Living diatom Mediopyxis helysia, showing the cell nuclei and golden chloroplasts, captured using brightfield microscopy. On top there is a bacteria colony.