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Baby Squid And Gorgeous Fungus Win The "Art Of Science" Photo Competition

Princeton announced the winners of its annual "Art Of Science" contest, and we highlighted a few of our favorites.

"A Cave of Crystals" by Hyoungsoo Kim, François Boulogne, and Howard Stone

In the past, The Creators Project has featured artwork that visualized microscopic phenomenaexplosive experiments, and other scientific happenings, though never a drop of cow's blood in extreme detail. Well look above, and there you have it: a droplet containing bovine serum albumin (a type of protein). This is just one of the many incredible science photos detailed in Princeton University's annual Art of Science competition, a yearly event that encourages faculty, students, and alumni to submit their most aesthetically astounding stills and videos culled from academic research.

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The judges received more than 250 submissions this year before narrowing the finalists down to 44 still images and 12 videos. From dancing hashtags in a data art project, to an ebullient (and hard to pronounce) crystal, we picked a few of our favorite winners. See some eye-catching academic art below, and head over to the full list of winners for more scientific snapshots.

Spherulites (Anna Hailey, Marsha Loth, John Anthony, Yueh-Lin Loo)

This incredibly bright image of microscopic spherical crystals has a  tongue twister of a full name (bistriethylsilylethynylanthradithiophene) and is reminiscent of Abstract Expressionist master Mark Rothko’s orange canvases. We're not sure if these crystals are good for our energy, but we're still impressed.

Fungus Among Us (James S. Waters)

Though we've seen other artists make bacteria beautiful, an image by postdoctoral researcher James S. Waters depicts the fungus that connects us all. The above image highlights a gossamer network of strands that ants use for nutrients in order to reproduce. "Those spores are tiny," writes Waters. "64,000 times smaller than the typical ant in whose colony they share a home." In the image, however, the microscopic fungi becomes a massive, labyrinthine web that looks like an alien nest.

Dance of the Hashtags (Felix Wong)

This big data video depicts the popularity of certain Twitter hashtags on the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election day. Though not quite fit for the George W. Bush Presidential Museum, we can't help but feel mesmerized by social media data twirling like a pirouette.

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Elodea Leaf Cell (Nicolas C. Pegard and Jason W. Fleischer)

Trippy images are always a crowd favorite, whether in an artistic setting or outside of one. We're not surprised that this psychedelic microscopic image of an Elodea leaf cell was one of the top finalists of the competition. The colors, man.

Baby Kraken (Celeste M. Nelson)

"Even sea monsters start as babies," writes Celeste M. Nelson, the photographer behind the alien-esque image above. As the name suggests, "Baby Kraken" is an image of a squid embryo taken with a fluorescence microscope. The cute lil guy has tiny suction cups and four arms, though soon he'll grow and begin to dismantle crew ships with massive arms. We've seen small pieces of calamari, but who would have thought baby squids were this cartoonish?

Take a look at the whole slew of winning images of the Art of Science competition at the official online gallery.

h/t NBC News

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