See snazzy slugs in all their luminous glory — February’s best science images The month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team. By Emma Stoye

See snazzy slugs in all their luminous glory — February’s best science images

The month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.

By Emma Stoye

at-cell formation. This ultra-high-res shot of stem cells differentiating into fat tissue was taken by Shuntaro Yamada, a stem-cell biologist and dentist at the University of Bergen, Norway, who says it is among the sharpest images he has ever captured. “Adipogenesis of bone marrow stem cells is definitely an interesting research area for us,” he says. Understanding the process could help researchers who are working towards applications in soft-tissue generation, such as wound healing or fat reconstruction. The image is part of an exhibition of cell photography at Bergen University Museum.

Green juice. Capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) and other wildlife were left covered in green slime when cyanobacteria formed a thick layer on the surface of Argentina’s Salto Grande lake. The massive bloom is a result of recent high temperatures and low rainfall, partly driven by climate change, according to Martin Novoa, a biologist at the National University of Entre Rios. “The longer they last, the more dangerous they become for the environment,” he told the AFP news agency. Long-term exposure to the microbes can cause skin, liver and nervous-system problems in humans.

LEGO with lasers. Complete with fully functioning lasers, mirrors, and beam splitters, this ‘LEGO interferometer’ was designed by researchers at the University of Nottingham, UK, and can be seen in action at a public exhibition at the university’s Djanogly Art Gallery. The model replicates more-high-tech instruments that physicists use to probe materials, or even to measure the nearly imperceptible motions caused by gravitational waves. When two laser beams are combined, they create an interference pattern of alternating dark and bright stripes, which is highly sensitive to even the tiniest changes in the lengths of the beams.

The plant lives in arid, rocky environments and blooms only after rain. Its distinctive but tiny flowers are easily missed at first glance.

Cosmic bullseye. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists at NASA captured the massive galaxy LEDA 1313424 surrounded by nine rings of stars — six more than any other known galaxy. The team nicknamed it Bullseye, because a smaller galaxy (the blue patch centre-left) shot through it, creating rings that are like the ripples a stone makes in a pond. “We’re catching the Bullseye at a very special moment in time,” said astronomer Pieter van Dokkum in a press release. “There’s a very narrow window after the impact when a galaxy like this would have so many rings.” The Bullseye is almost five times larger than our Galaxy, measuring around 500,000 light-years across.

Read after burning. One of three Herculaneum scrolls housed at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, UK, has been digitally unrolled using X-ray images taken at Diamond, the United Kingdom’s national synchrotron facility. The papyrus scroll is nearly 2,000 years old and was left badly charred by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in ad 79. Scholars

are now examining the text in detail to establish how much of it is readable. They have already made out one Ancient Greek word — διατροπή, meaning disgust — which appears twice within a few columns of text.

The snazziest slug. This strange-looking creature is Doto greenamyeri, a sea slug easily identified by the six donut-shaped structures on its back. These are cerata, an important feature of sea-slug anatomy often involved in breathing and digestion. Photographer Bryan Blauvelt used different lighting effects to capture this Doto in all of its luminous glory while diving in Bali, Indonesia. His photo was a runner-up at the 2025 Underwater Photographer of the Year competition — see below for a selection of other commended entries.