Photo by Daniel Almeida

In 1873, Camillo Golgi published his discovery of the “black reaction” (reazione nera), a stain that would allow him and other early neuroscientists to understand the structural organization of the nervous system. Nearly 150 years later, it remains unclear why some neurons are beautifully stained by the black reaction while others are left without a trace. Yet, it is because of this selective staining that neuroscientists can visualize and trace, in precise detail, the structure of individual neurons. This image is of a post-mortem human brain section stained by the black reaction. Our research uses this method to study the structure of prefrontal pyramidal neurons in the brains of individuals who died by suicide.

Jury Prize

People’s Choice Award

Photo by Giuseppe Di Labbio

The blood flow in the left ventricle—the heart’s powerhouse—is depicted in a healthy heart (left) and in a leaking heart valve (right). The right side of the image represents a disease known as aortic regurgitation. When a healthy left ventricle fills, a single laminar vortex swirls elegantly and directs blood for ejection. However, with aortic regurgitation, the leak disrupts the flow by impeding the formation of this vortex as well as generating turbulent activity within the ventricle. These effects reduce the overall pumping efficiency of the left ventricle, placing an additional burden on the heart to pump blood. This research aims to use the flow in the left ventricle to better understand aortic regurgitation and to better evaluate its progression in practice.

Jury Prize

Photo by Gongyu Lin

This image shows a predatory mite bearing spores of entomopathogenic fungi on its body. It had been half an hour since the mite was released from its rearing substrate that was artificially contaminated with spores (bottom of the image), and the side of her body was already clean. She spent half of this time grooming; however, grooming was insufficient for her to dislodge the spores on her back. Surprisingly, walking was enough—a rolling stone gathers no moss. In my PhD project, we were looking for dispersal agents to spread disease rapidly in a population of western flower thrips (a farmer’s biggest nightmare). We found that certain species of predatory mites—depending on their foraging activities—can increase the rate of infection of thrips by delivering spores to their colonies. This combination of predation and infection offers an efficient alternative to pesticides for reducing pest populations rapidly.

Jury Prize

Photo by Laurent Drissen and Marcel Sévigny

A Wolf-Rayet star lies hidden at the heart of this gigantic ball of gas. On the verge of a supernova explosion, it is ejecting phenomenal quantities of matter in the form of stellar winds, creating the surrounding molecular cloud. This Doppler image shows the inexorable expansion of nebula NGC 2359. For this image, only wavelengths emitted by ionized hydrogen have been selected, and the colours correspond to the velocity of the gas: from blue, moving towards us, to red, receding. Image taken from a hyperspectral cube obtained with the SITELLE imaging spectrometer developed in Québec and installed on the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope. Only wavelengths associated with the H-alpha line (656 nm) have been selected.

Jury Prize

Photo by Pierre-Alexandre Goyette

A fluid is being injected through an opening at the centre of the image. There, it is imprisoned in a thin interstice, also bathed in fluid, and re-aspirated through a second opening to the right of the image. On the micrometre scale, fluid movement is not subject to turbulence. Its flow is laminar, as can be seen by the fluorescent microbeads shimmering in the dark. The precise control of fluids on a surface opens the way to improved biomedical tests based on human tissue staining.

Jury Prize

Photo by Julien Saguez

These strange flying saucers are actually dozens of eggs laid on leaves at the top of a corn plant. Soon, they will release larvae of the western bean cutworm, which have an insatiable appetite for tender young cobs. The eggs are laid by moths native to the American heartland that are now well established in Ontario. They are carried on the wind to Québec, where it is feared that climate change could enable them to make a new home for themselves.

Jury Prize

Photo by Fèmy Fagla

Every morning, this young lad perches on his makeshift raft kept afloat by plastic jugs. Propelling himself with a pole, he travels five kilometres to attend school in Ganvie, a lake village with a population of 40,000. He provides a striking example of the resourcefulness of the people living above the waters of Lake Nokoué in Benin. The research urbanist is documenting their lifestyle and ability to adapt in the context of climate change.

Human-Nature Prize – Espace pour la vie

Photo by Stéphanie Arnold, Jean-François Laplante, Nicolas Toupoint, Francine Aucoin and Pascale Chevarie

You are looking at Homarus americanus collected at the prelarval stage off the Îles de la Madeleine. The diameter of this lobster embryo’s eye, together with the temperature of the water, indicate that the egg will hatch in about five weeks. Data collected in collaboration with fishermen is used to estimate future cohort numbers. It will take this little fellow eight years to reach adult size and be marketable.

People’s Choice Award

Photo by Sila Appak Baskoy

The nerves and vasculature run alongside each other in this image showing the neurovascular network in a mouse’s skin. Neurons (red) guide not only their axon formation, but also blood vessels (green) into an organized network as new vasculature forms from the existing vessels in both development and adults. The signals shared by neurons and vessels can help us design targeted therapies against illnesses such as cancer, and engineer new organs that are structurally and functionally relevant.

Photo by Hani Jazaerli

Ice build-up on the aerodynamic surfaces of aircraft is a major threat to safe flight that aerospace companies face every winter. A potential solution is a slippery surface that can delay ice build-up and help remove it. Using suspension plasma spraying of titanium dioxide feedstock particles smaller than a micron, we have developed a porous microstructure that consists of pillars 200 microns in height. These surfaces can be impregnated with various lubricating oils, and the micro-pores can act as reservoirs. The resulting solid/oil interface is exceptionally slippery, which allows water droplets to slide on the surface with minimal loss of energy. This image shows the hierarchical structure of this surface: a base coating layer and the micro pillars after impregnation with oil. The oil is visible on the surface as large rivulets and smaller half-rings (c-shapes).

Photo by Peter Soroye

A pair of small yellow-banded acraea (Acraea acerata) enjoy a moment of solitude in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. These butterflies are thought to be sensitive to both excessive and limited rainfall, so the increased variability in precipitation resulting from recent climate change could have dramatic impacts on this species. This picture was uploaded to iNaturalist.org, where it joins a global database of over 15 million observations of almost 200,000 different species. These observations were submitted by over 400,000 naturalists, mainly amateurs. Submitting an observation is as simple as taking a picture on your smartphone. Citizen science like this has generated incredible amounts of data and changed the way ecology and global change research is done. Researchers at the University of Ottawa use these observations to predict how species and individuals like these A. acerata will respond to global climate changes.

Photo by Phil Angel

As our understanding of dinoflagellates—common kinds of phytoplankton—broadens, they continue to defy many of the rules we typically associate with protists, simple organisms that are neither plants, animals nor fungi. For this reason, they are consistently interesting and help us learn more about the evolution, in all its forms, of eukaryotes (life forms with complex cells). Pictured here is haplozoon axiothellae, a dinoflagellate that is a parasite of certain marine worms. This organism is an example of how odd dinoflagellates can be, with a compartmentalized body that is unique even among the protists we know of. We continue to study this protist and others like it with high-resolution microscopes to learn more about their cellular organization and put them in the greater context of eukaryota.

Photo by Olga Sirbu

A scanning electron microscope was used to pinpoint the phenotype of one of the most primordial and conserved proteins in the extracellular matrix, called SPARC, in larval tissue of fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster, magnified to 40 microns. The colouring highlights the fibrous laminin network that is characteristic of SPARC overexpression and collagen-IV deficiency in the basement membrane. The notion of intertwingularity—the idea that all knowledge, regardless of the field or subject matter, is deeply and intrinsically interconnected—is exemplified by this evolutionarily treasured protein, and the role it plays in almost all life forms on Earth.

Photo by Julek Chawarski

During my first Arctic field season, I encountered bears in every corner of Canada's Arctic. From the bear that used my mooring buoys as chew toys on Baffin Island, to the mother and cub swimming 100 miles offshore in the ice-free Labrador Sea, to this family of three in the Hudson Strait—these bears have my attention. With the rapid loss of habitat, I wonder how many cubs will survive to the next season. Let's do what we can to maintain the longevity of such beautiful creatures.

Photo by Angela Stevenson

Feather stars (relatives of sea stars and urchins) are home to a multitude of tiny marine invertebrates and fish (dubbed “infestors”) like this clingfish, shyly smiling back at us through the arms of Anneissia bennetti (a common feather star in the Philippines). This vibrant metropolis poses no direct threat to its feather star host, but hungry predators who feast on infestors can cause collateral damage to their star home, leaving a temporary footprint (an injury) on the feather star: like the two amputated arms pictured in the foreground (immediately below the clingfish). Changes in these intimate relationships as we go deeper below the ocean surface, from shallow (surface to 30 metres) to mesophotic (30 to 120 metres) depths, paint an interesting portrait of how marine communities can support each other in times of stress.

Photo by Stephanie Doucet

These two male savannah sparrows are the same age and were captured in the same location—from a long-term study population on a small island in the Bay of Fundy. Nevertheless, one sparrow has a striking yellow eyebrow, and the other is much duller. Such visual traits in birds are important in females’ choice of mate and males’ territorial interactions, and may be influenced by a variety of factors including health, genetic quality, diet, climate and pollution. Researchers at the Universities of Windsor and Guelph are using field studies of wild birds, combined with spectrometry to measure colour, genetic analyses to quantify reproductive success, and isotope analyses and GPS tracking to monitor seasonal movements. These data will reveal how health, climate and overwintering location influence trait variation in males and females, and the consequences of this variation on breeding success and survival.

Photo by Naila Kuhlmann

This image shows mouse neurons from two brain regions, the cortex and the striatum, grown together in a dish (cell co-culture) and dyed fluorescent colours. I study Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative disorder resulting from changes in the basal ganglia circuitry, in which the striatum is a key player, receiving motor input from the cortex. This co-culture allows us to study the connections (synapses) between cortical and striatal neurons. I compare co-cultures from healthy (control) mice with those carrying a mutation in the LRRK2 gene, a common risk factor for Parkinson’s disease. The mutation alters the LRRK2 protein, which plays a crucial—but poorly understood—role in synapses. By studying how the altered protein affects synapse formation, strength and plasticity, we can elucidate the early changes in basal ganglia circuitry that lead to Parkinson’s disease, and figure out how to target LRRK2 to treat the disease.

Photo by Nuwan Hettige

This image depicts a cluster of the neurons (brain cells) that make up a large part of the human brain. Following the discovery that stem cells can be made from various other cell types in the body, researchers were able to reprogram these stem cells into other cell types of interest. My research aims to understand a rare neurodevelopmental disorder called FOXG1 syndrome. After extracting renal epithelial cells from urine, collected from a young child afflicted with the disorder, I was able to reprogram these cells into stem cells and then into mature neurons. I grew these neurons in a dish for 30 days, then preserved and stained them with forebrain fluorescent markers, MAP2 and TUJ1. By growing these neurons from a human patient, we are able to get firsthand insight into the pathology of these brain cells.

Photo by John Malik

Time series measuring biological and natural processes often exhibit a multi-scale periodic structure that is invisible to the human eye. The Fourier transform is a mathematical device that decomposes a time series into a sum of elementary oscillations. The short-time Fourier transform describes how these decompositions change in a matrix, with time and frequency as axes, called a time-frequency representation. By transforming the complex entries of the time-frequency representation, one can obtain numbers serving as intensity or colour values for an image. Such images are widely used for visual signal analysis. This image was derived from an electrocardiogram of atrial fibrillation. The horizontal axis is time, and the vertical axis is frequency. The intensity values are a blend of the modulus and phase values.

Photo by Anthony Moulins

This image shows an area 64 microns × 42 microns. It represents a fibre network made of a “smart polymer” called PVDF, which is commonly used for food packaging as well as for brain activity sensors. Each fibre is connected to a bead within the whole structure. If this material is electrically stressed, a mechanical strain can be observed and vice versa.

Photo by Faezeh Sabri

This image shows large droplets of oil dispersed in water and, within the oil droplets, tiny droplets of water. A system of stabilized oil droplets in water is called an emulsion; in this case, it is a double emulsion. Surfactants are used to form emulsions, but they can be toxic and unstable at high temperatures. Solid-stabilized emulsions can overcome these limitations. They involve solid particles, instead of surfactants, that stabilize droplets of one liquid in a second liquid. Such double emulsions, in which you have a droplet within a droplet, can be used in food and pharmaceutical products. They protect sensitive compounds and induce their triggered release. These double droplets are formed in a one-step process with only one type of solid particles. This image is one of a series taken to confirm the formation of multiple droplets as well as to better understand the mechanism involving in the formation.

Photo by Alex Diaz-Papkovich

Each of these 488,377 dots represents one person’s data from the UK Biobank. The placement of a dot is determined mathematically from genotype data, with those genetically closer to each other placed closer together in a diverse global continuum. Each dot is coloured based on the individual’s self-identified ethnic background. This image helps reveal patterns in populations, hinting at relationships between genetics, geography and the histories of human migrations.

Photo by Sheri McDowell

A cancer tumour contains many different types of non-cancerous cells, such as immune cells. These make up the tumour’s microenvironment, which can affect the growth and progression of cancer cells. As shown here, growing cancer cells (yellow and magenta) are surrounded by immune cells (blue) and connective tissue (green). Characterizing the landscape of a tumour can help us find targeted therapies to treat cancer.

Photo by Ashley Reynolds

Under the microscope, this wafer-thin piece of fossilized bone from a sabre-toothed cat looks like an extraterrestrial world, with the resin the bone is embedded in resembling a starry sky. By looking at the remains of long-dead animals at such a fine scale, researchers can begin to solve otherwise unanswerable questions about extinct species, such as how long they typically lived and how quickly they reached adulthood. Here, researchers are making comparisons between the sabre-toothed cat Smilodon and some of its closest living relatives, such as the lion and tiger, to try and answer some long-standing questions: Did Smilodon live in prides, just like the lion? Why did the fearsome Ice-Age predator go extinct?

Photo by Sean Landsman

Turbulence—as shown here at the base of a traditional pool-and-weir fishway—creates flow conditions that pose a challenge for migrating fish species like alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus pictured here). Fishways are constructed to allow fish to move around dams, but assessing their effectiveness is critical to evaluating their value in conservation.

Photo by Yanis Chaib

Our skin is a physicochemical barrier protecting us from invasion. Hidden among epidermal cells (green), dendritic cells (red) wait in ambush to act as the immune system’s first level of defence. The moment a threat is detected, these cells initiate an inflammatory reaction to intercept pathogens while T lymphocytes are summoned to neutralize them. This image shows the distribution of cells on human skin in the mammary region.

Photo by Olivier Gazil

This honeycomb of alveoli is part of a polyurethane kitchen sponge that is completely ordinary—except for being plated with nanoparticles of pure gold! While gold is generally a non-reactive metal, it can become highly reactive at the nanometre level, enabling it to serve as a catalyst in “green” chemical processes. The sponge’s porosity enables molecules to react with a multitude of contact surfaces, creating a golden opportunity!

Photo by Valérye Desbiens

This microsphere is an agglomeration of recycled glass dust whose smallest particles measure just 7 or 8 micrometres. The aggregation process developed at the Centre makes it possible to transform mine wastes into products with added value. For example, these porous microbeads injected during hydraulic fracturing can now be used as gas-permeable proppants that reduce the risk of explosion and pressure surges.

Photo by Etienne Laliberté

The common reed is one of the most invasive exotic plants in Canada. Here, one of its “infantry divisions” is advancing in tight formation from the bottom left corner of the image (diagonally across the checkered area). Phragmites australis is gradually invading a field of goldenrod in Parc national des îles-de-Boucherville. Fortunately, a drone hovering 50 metres above the field took this photo pinpointing the impending invasion for researchers at the Canadian Airborne Biodiversity Observatory.

Photo by Denise Chabot

This is a cross-section of a Brassica napus (canola) seed. Barely 2 millimetres in diameter, these tiny seeds have made our country the world’s largest producer of canola oil. This particular variety of rapeseed, developed in Canada, contains large quantities of oil globules (green) and proteins (red)—energy reserves used by the growing plant. Research is ongoing to develop higher-yield canola crops that are more sustainable.

Photo by Martine Blais and Danny Rioux

The butternut is an endangered species in Canada. An invasive exotic fungus known as Ophiognomonia clavigignenti-juglandacearum is responsible for its decimation. Some trees, however, are able to resist by encapsulating the pathogen under a layer of cork. This means of defence can be seen at the top left in the form of a bracket-shaped purple line in the heart of the sapwood. The other photos show the same view in higher magnifications. Will these resistant trees yield the next generation of North-American butternuts?

Photo by Andréanne Beardsell

It is summer in the Arctic, and thousands of migratory birds have gathered to reproduce. Countless eggs have been laid, to the delight of an Arctic fox who can now feed her brood. Studying predation provides researchers with a reference for assessing the overall impact of human activities on Nordic ecosystems. This research is conducted in an open-air laboratory where a dearth of trees greatly facilitates the observation of predatory behaviour.

Photo by Meriem Bouchilaoun

The manufacture of microprocessors begins by depositing a layer of photosensitive resin on a gallium arsenide plate. This high-precision technology requires a perfectly smooth surface. While the process has been well mastered, occasionally a handling incident can produce creatively unique results. In this case, resin residue on a plate has mysteriously sprouted into the form of a sakura—an ornamental Japanese cherry tree.

Photo by Stéphane Le Tirant and René Limoges

Some species of leaf insect live in forests at the end of the world hidden from view in the tree canopy. Furthermore, they are dispersed across thousands of islands between India and Australia. For this taxonomic research, the authors used social media to gather a group of volunteer island dwellers. Eleven new species have been identified and data on their geographic distribution is being collected at an unprecedented rate. A remarkable example of participative science!

Photo by Antoine Juneau

The power of today’s computers makes it possible to use computational chemistry for research. The technology predicts the properties of molecules and validates observations with impressive accuracy. Here, a cobalt complex has been modelled using quantum calculation methods. The red and blue indicate the statistical location of two of its electrons, while the white and grey spheres represent, respectively, the predicted position of the hydrogen and carbon atomic nuclei.

Photo by Floriane Bretheau

Taken from an in vitro culture, this stunning maze of colours comprises astrocytes (green) and oligodendrocytes (red and blue). These are two types of glial cells that provide vital support to nerve cells. When the spinal cord suffers a lesion, the ensuing inflammatory reaction intended to clear debris causes a secondary degeneration in which astrocytes are involved in destroying oligodendrocytes. A better understanding of this mechanism could lead to improved recovery for accident victims.

Photo by Amélie Dumont and Hugo Martel

Imagine two young galaxies composed primarily of gas, attracted to one another, ten billion years ago. A supercomputer and several weeks of calculations made it possible to simulate their initial encounter, track the subsequent separation, and then visualize them entwining once again. This process was repeated six times in a simulation representing 500 million years, culminating in the formation of a single spiral galaxy in which countless stars would be formed—a galaxy not unlike our own Milky Way.

Photo by Charles Ducrot

This intriguing and fascinating dopaminergic neuron comes from a region of the brain known as the substantia nigra. This cell and others like it, together with the surrounding network of branches, plays a key role in coordinating movement. Unfortunately, they are known to be highly vulnerable in the context of disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Researchers are trying to unlock the secret of their fragility by growing them in vitro and using electron microscopy to observe the synaptic terminals (not visible in this overview image).

Photo by Joan Vallerand

Extreme cold formed a layer of ice along the banks of the Richelieu River near Saint-Jean. After the water receded, an icy crust remained suspended above the river. A thaw then caused small icicles to form. With the return of colder temperatures, they have frozen and can be seen reflected in a thin layer of fresh ice. Capricious oscillations around the freezing point are likely to become more frequent with climate change.

Photo by Janie Lavoie

Cyclical outbreaks of the spruce budworm cause vast ecological and economic devastation. The damage inflicted on mature trees by the insect have been widely documented. This image, taken by drone, is one such example, showing grey trees that have succumbed to the voracious pest. The question has now become whether the budworm will attack spruce and pine seedlings after clearcutting, compromising the regeneration of this precious resource.