The 10 Enlightening Winners of the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025
The winners of the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025 showcase the best scientific photography worldwide across multiple categories, celebrating the overlap between compelling art and influential science.
Operated in association with the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), the competition showcases the brilliant images that often reveal hidden scientific phenomena. This year’s overall winner, Dr. Martin Ramirez, captured a brilliant photo using a scanning electron microscope that shows a 0.05-millimeter-long close-up of silk from the Australian net-casting spider (Asianopis subrufa).
These spiders are clever ambush predators who hold sticky, strong webs between their forelegs and throw it onto insects as they pass by. This distinct hunting strategy requires the silk to have unique properties, which is why Dr. Ramirez began studying the species in the first place, alongside his collaborator, Dr. Jonas Wolff from Greifswald University.
Dr. Ramirez, a research scientist for the National Science and Technical Research Council at the Argentinian Museum of Natural Sciences, was surprised to hear of his victory.
“I knew my image was nice, but it is very surprising be competing with these awesome photographers,” the humble scientist explains.
“Just from observing the behavior, we knew something spectacular was going to be there,” Dr. Ramirez continues. “The web is incredibly stretchy; no normal silk can extend in that way to then return to its original form.”
Dr. Ramirez and Dr. Wolff worked together in Germany to carefully dissect the silk, fiber by fiber, and investigate it using an electron microscope. The winning image was actually captured back in Argentina using samples that Dr. Ramirez brought back with him. The electron microscope he used uses a beam of electrons to capture images rather than light.
“The judges were unanimous in their selection of this winning photograph. We evaluate entries on two key criteria: aesthetic appeal and the ability to convey a compelling scientific phenomenon,” remarks Hugh Turvey, Science Committee Chair at the Royal Photographic Society and a member of the competition’s judging panel. “This bold, graphic SEM of inconceivable rope-like structures — with their remarkable twists and complex undulations — evokes a sense of wonder, perfectly demonstrating the intersection of artistic form and scientific function.”
Category Winners
Alongside Dr. Ramirez’s overall victory, scientific photographers competed across five categories: astronomy, behavior, Earth science and climatology, ecology and environmental science, and microimaging. Dr. Ramirez, who won £1000, won the microimaging category.
The four other category winners and five runners-up are featured below. Each winner earned £500 for their victories.
Astronomy
Behavior
Earth Sciences and Climatology
Ecology and Environmental Science
Microimaging
Image credits: Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025. All photographers are credited in the captions.
