The Best Science Images of 2023 | Nature

snowflake yeast photographed during the 2022 MBL Physiology Course.

Snowflake yeast imaged during the MBL Physiology Course. Credit: Tony Burnetti and Will Ratcliff, Georgia Institute of Technology

By MBL Communications December 12, 2023

An image of snowflake yeast taken during the 2022 Physiology Advanced Research Training course was listed among Nature's "Best science images of the year," alongside photos of space nebulae, a melting ice sheet, and an erupting volcano.

Yeast snowflake. This starry cluster of yeast cells is the result of experiments that probed the evolution of multicellular organisms. Researchers selected large cells that evolved to form branching clumps. — **Yeast snowflake**. This starry cluster of yeast cells is the result of experiments that probed the evolution of multicellular organisms. Researchers selected large cells that evolved to form branching clumps. Credit: Tony Burnetti and Will Ratcliff, Georgia Institute of Technology.

The image of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (also known as "snowflake yeast") was part of a long-term experiment at the Georgia Institute of Technology investigating how life on Earth may have transitioned from single-celled into multicellular organisms. The researchers visualized the nuclei of the cells in orange to help them study changes in how the yeast cells divided. Cell walls are shown in blue. The sample was captured using spinning disk confocal microscopy.

See the rest of this year's images at Nature.com...

Source: The Best Science Images of 2023 – Nature’s picks | Nature