Top imaging

These are lobster eggs, seen just before hatching. The eggs have a diameter of 2-3 millimetres. The image was taken through a microscope while Tora Bardal at NTNU’s Department of Biology and Johan Evjemo at SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture measured the diameter of the eggs to find out how long it would be until they hatched.

Their work is part of a larger effort to transform Norwegian lobsters into a productive aquaculture species. The image was selected by Scientific American as one of the 10 best in the magazine’s 2008 Olympus Bioscape Digital Imaging Competition.