A tear-jerking image of a polar bear clinging to a small ice floe in the Arctic Ocean is one of the highlights of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS)’s Science Photographer of the Year 2020 award.
As with many of the winning images, the polar bear photo ‘On Thin Ice’ by Sue Flood FRPS paints a striking picture of the current climate crisis facing the planet.
In the latest competition for scientific photographers of the year, the RPS introduced a category of climate change that Flood won with another of her images taken in the North Pole area: ‘North Pole underwater’.
In total, four winners of the competition, along with seventy-five selected images, will be displayed as part of the digital Manchester Science Festival – which takes place from 12 to 21 February – hosted by the city’s Science and Industry Museum. The online exhibition will continue after the festival and run until 02 May.
The four winners and some selected images can be seen below.
Science Photographer of the Year (General Science category)
‘Orthophoto of SS Thistlegorm’ by Simon Brown
“The wreck of SS Thistlegorm, a ship sunk in the Red Sea in 1941, in an image derived from 15,005 frames. Each was adapted to give a ‘straight down’ view before using GPS data. ‘is a well-known recreational dive site (divers at the bottom right) and is slowly becoming part of the local coral reef.’
Young Science Photographer of the Year (General Science Category)
‘Rainbow Shadow Selfie’ by Katy Appleton
“Sunlight casts a spectrum on a wall that is through a prism. The photographer casts her own shadow on the wall to make the spectrum shine more clearly.”
Science Photographer of the Year (Climate Change Category)
‘North Pole underwater’ by Sue Flood
“A signpost depicting the geographic north pole at 90 ° north latitude largely covered by sea ice with water. Every year the ice cover over the North Pole decreases, a direct result of changing world climates.”
Young Scientific Photographer of the Year (Climate Change Category)
‘Apollo’s Emissary’ by Raymond Zhang
“A concentrated solar power (CSP) generating station in China. 12,000 mirrors reflect sunlight to a central tower where it heats sodium nitrate salt. It goes to a heat exchanger and makes steam to power generators. The thermal inertia is such that the station can continue to work through the night, saving up to 350 000 tons of CO2 emissions per year. ‘
Selected image
‘Turing Patterns – BZ reaction’ by Dr David Maitland FRPS
“Hypnotic patterns formed by a Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction in a petri dish. Drops of one chemical are added to the other in the dish. The drops appear to emit concentric rings and spirals like waves of chemical concentrations. “The math behind it was described by Alan Turing.”
Selected image
‘Giants on the move’ by Rasmus Degnbol / REDUX Pictures
“A 78-meter blade for an offshore wind turbine seen as a roundabout in the city of Tarp, Denmark.”
Selected image
‘Lo Hueco’ by Nuno Perestrelo
“Scientists carefully removing rock from the petrified vertebrae of a dinosaur discovered in the Lo Hueco area near Cuenca, Spain. A large deposit from the Upper Cretaceous (100-66 million years ago) that was discovered in 2007 by construction workers discovered, yielding more than 10,000 fossils. specimens. “
Selected image
‘”Synlight” Experiment’ by Christian Lünig
“Some of the 149 xenon arc lamps that make up the ‘Synlight’ experiment. It creates a light intensity 10,000 times greater than the incident radiation from the sun, and is used in experiments to make fuel like hydrogen from water.”
Selected image
‘The net that strangles the ocean’ by Rafael Fernandez
“A potfish (Physeter macrocephalus) entangled in a discarded fishing net. Discarded fishing gear, known as ghost gear, accounts for up to 640,000 tons, or 10%, of all marine litter. Ghost nets entangle a wide variety of marine wildlife from whales and sharks to turtles, fish and seabirds. “
Selected image
‘The Dead River’ by Abdul Momin
“Cattle are led across a sandbank to search for water and vegetation. This image was taken in Gaibandha, Bangladesh, where the changing course of the Brahmaputra River has left many villages miles away from fresh water for their herds.”
Selected image
‘Cygnus Pressurized Module’ by Enrico Sacchetti
‘Interior view of a Cygnus spacecraft, an unmanned cargo spacecraft used to transport supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit. The load module has a capacity of 2000 kg. ‘
Selected image
‘Dinosaur Bone’ by Norm Barker ASIS FRPS
“Seen through a microscope, a polished cut through a fossilized dinosaur bone reveals multiple colors due to the minerals deposited. The different colors come from changing mineral content as the fossil is formed and does not reflect the underlying structure of the bone. This image extends over a field of 1.2 mm. “
Selected image
‘Spherical Deviation’ by Richard Germain
“A simple spherical lens placed in a cartridge tube distorts the light passing through it. The distortion is greater towards the edge of the lens due to spherical aberration, and the inability to bring all the light into a common focal point. bring.”
“This year’s science photographer of the year is more relevant than ever to document how science and climate change are affecting our entire lives,” said Dr Michael Pritchard, the RPS’s director of education and public affairs.
“The selected images are striking and will make us think more about the world around us.”
In an effort to support schools and young people, the RPS has created a bank of educational materials in collaboration with PhotoPedagogy. The competition was also supported by Olympus, which awarded camera prizes to the winners in the under-18 categories.
Read more:
Best camera for wildlife photography
Best Camera for Landscape Photography
Best lenses for landscape
Landscape Photography Tips