The above image, by Spike Walker, was one of the winners of the 2009 Wellcome Image Awards, announced yesterday in England. Last year's winners blew us away, but if anything, this years' are even more spectacular. Many of them play to our weakness for beautiful microscopy images. Here are our absolute favorites — more images at the link. [Wellcome Image Awards]

Microparticle drug delivery by Annie Cavaugh and Dave McCarthy: A synthetic drug coated with co-polymers. Scanning electron micrograph.

Villi in the small intestine. Multiphoton fluorescent micrograph by Paul Appleton.

Capillary network. Light micrograph by Spike Walker.

Mouse liver. Scanning electron micrograph by Jackie Lewin.

Lung cancer cell. Scanning electron micrograph by Anne Weston, London Research Institute, Cancer Research, UK.

Summer plankton. Light micrograph by Spike Walker.

The winners for the 2009 competition will be announced this Thursday, October 8th. In the meantime, you can play a few rounds of Identify the Image with more finalist photos on the competition website.

Small Wonders: Finalists From the Nikon Small World Competition [PDN Photo of the Day via Metafilter]

Shamuel Silberman, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Embryo of guppy fish (40X)
Viktor Sykora, Institute of Pathophysiology, First Medical Faculty, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Hoya carnosa (wax plant) flower (10x)
Massimo Brizzi, Microcosmo Italia, Empoli, Firenze, Italy
Snail eggs (200x)
Daniel Vega, Madrid, Spain
Gall (plant tissue growth) formed by Trigonaspis mendesi (4X)
Karie Holtermann, Rancho Cucamonga, California, United States
Raindrop on butterfly wing (20X)
Norm Barker, Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Dinosaur bone, Jurassic period (15X)
Gerd A. Guenther, Düsseldorf, Germany
Sonchus asper (spiny sowthistle) flower stem section (150X)
Fabrice Parais, DIREN Basse-Normandie, Hérouville-Saint-Clair, France
Atherix ibis (fly) aquatic larva (25x)
Yanping Wang, Beijing Planetarium, Beijing, China
Snowflake (40X)
Frederique Ruf-Zamojski, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States
Zebrafish embryo, 22 hours post-fertilization, living specimen (40X)

Each month, Zuda, the online branch of DC Comics, selects 10 eight-page comic pitches to compete. The winner, based on reader votes and ratings, receives a contract for a 52-page run on Zuda, with the possibility of renewal after that.

Unfortunately, there are a number of firm and near misses in this round. Mystery Jungle is a Lost World pastiche so straightforward it's dull, Incarna loses its narrative thread in a sea of ninja zombies, and Wheeljack Union resembles Atomic Robo without the charm. More promising is the rather twee My T-Shirt Fairy Tale, which uses the interesting concept of narrating through novelty t-shirts, but doesn't quite have the art or story to back it up, and The Symptoms, about a superpowered punk band that battles a zombie-like menace, but could use a little more attitude.

There are, however, some real standouts in the pile. One of the clear frontrunners for this month is the dreamily rendered Goldilock, a science fiction drama about the exploration of a newly discovered planet. After the people of Earth have long searched for a new home, the planet Goldilock seems perfect for human habitation, and a team has been dispatched on a two-year mission to explore the planet and determine if it holds any sentient life. Goldilock features an unusual color palette and a beautifully strange array of creatures, and manages to introduce a large cast in its eight pages without feeling overly busy.

And, on the somewhat lighter side of things is Revenge of the Homicidal Pumpkins a B movie-inspired horror comic that doesn't skimp on the blood and guts. Thirteen year-old horror movie buff Robbie Jarvis lives in a small town suddenly plagued by bizarre and gory accidents, accidents suspiciously accompanied by a trail of pumpkin seeds. The comic tempers its sinister squash with an animated look and a wicked sense of humor, ending on a wonderfully gruesome one-liner.

Voting for this month's Zuda contestants will close around noon on Wednesday, September 30.

[Zuda Competition]

Noting that 90 percent of metropolitan growth in the last ten years has taken place in suburbia, Inhabitat is looking for entries that emphasize efficiency and density, as well as those who come up with creative new uses for the current symbols of surbia: McMansions, cul de sacs, and big box stores. They've narrowed down the entrants to 20 finalists, with the winner receiving $1000 and a feature article in Dwell magazine. Voting is open through August 17th for the Reader's Choice, which will also be featured in Dwell.

[ReBurbia]

Airbia: A Suburban Airship by Alexandros Tsolakis and Irene Shamma

Airbia proposes a new eco-friendly and efficient transportation system linking the suburbs and city centre. Corresponding to the lack of coherent public transportation in the majority of the sprawling cities, a set of airships is designed to form an additional network over the urban tissue.

The Modular Train: Making Public Transportation Personal & Accessible by Helene McElroy

Public transportation currently suffers from a lack of funding and a bad image. Wider use would lead to better profitability – and the need to compete for dollars in an economic downturn would be less. The more public transit can act like a car, the higher level of comfort a larger group of people would have. The proposed modular train system makes the train: on demand, more private, and expand flexibly.

Bumper Crop: Converting Parking Lots to Farms by The Miller|Hull Partnership

Strip malls are everywhere. While they provide convenient access and affordable commercial space for a diverse tenant mix, their expansive surface parking and lack of human-scaled connection to adjacent neighborhoods have a deadening impact on our communities. A universal shift in the way we treat this pervasive typology: such as converting parking lots into farms – could result in massive change.

puRE: Transforming Swimming Pools into Water Treatment Plants by Craig England

The peri-urban Revitalization Element [puRE] is a catalyst for fostering sustainable development within existing suburban areas, by re-envisioning a classic suburban icon – the swimming pool -and transforming it into a productive, water-treating element within a community.

Radial Erect-Urbia: Elevated Geothermal Neighborhoods by Michael Hughes and Damon Wake

These 3000 ft mobile tower-cranes toddle towards suburban communities where they proceed to drill deep footings at the center of their cores into the earth and outstretch their tripod legs over a 2000 ft radius of suburb. The crane tears out homes from their plots and shelves them in 60 floors of open floor plates.

LivaBlox: Converting Big Box Stores to Container Homes by Evan Collins

LivaBlox, the renovation of a big box store, minimally harms the surrounding environment by recycling most of the original structure, and using the previous occupant's cargo containers.

Echomansion: Repurposed McMansion Shells by Robert Donaldson and Jim Fish

EChO-Mansion: noun – A repurposed McMansion whose generated carbon footprint is counter-balanced by on-site sustainable techniques.

'Burbs Reduxed by lacoste+stevenson

Our scheme proposes to thicken the arteries of our burbs as the remedy for their future. New housing is proposed above the roadways in-between the existing suburban fabric. The density of the burb is dramatically increased. The new housing promotes a new typology. A sinuous ribbon that weaves between the McMansions promoting mixed forms of living that offers an alternative to the single family dwelling.

Inter Estates: Reclaimed Freeways Turned Farms by Daniel Phillips

How to solve the problem of endless, under-utilized lateral expansion? Convert freeways to farms and build upwards! Left behind in the wake of the past century of unfettered lateral urbanization, the expansive embankments that cradle the American freeway represent one of the greatest untapped spatial fragments of the contemporary built environment. What if, rather than merely lamenting or accepting these non-places as the inevitable detritus of sprawl, these sites could be reclaimed and activated in response to the pressing concerns of our time?

Big Box Stores Transformed into Biofuel Generators by Alan Berger and Case Brown

For the Biofuel movement to flourish it will require cheap, flat, modular space networked into national and state highway systems. Abandoned big box stores provide these conditions. With little investment, these flat pavement deserts could be converted to bio-fuel generators.

Regenerative Suburban Median by Brian Alessi

Within many suburban developments there is an abundance of under utilized space within residential lots and public rights of way. Many suburban streets are 35-50ft wide; such widths unnecessarily consume ecological, social, and economic resources. We propose a new regenerative median for suburban streets that treats gray water and sewage, produces agriculture, provides a platform for small scale commercial activity and slows down automobile traffic to promote increased pedestrian activity and social interaction within the neighborhood.

The C3 Initiative: Community, Commerce, and Conservation by Kevin R. Smith

The C3 initiative will "re-colonize" suburbs by adding localized and micro versions of retail, energy generation, water efficiency, community organization, and economic development. C3 colonies utilize existing/built environments but look inward and generate energy, water conservation, community and revenue as a sustainable micro-society.

Vehiforce: Generate Energy With Your Parked Car by Tony Grullon

Imagine a time when the houses we live in are partially powered by our vehicles- sound crazy? Not exactly. The project I am proposing takes the average household garage and transforms it into a vehicle dependent power plant. Imagine entire communities producing power over night by their parked vehicles.

Entrepreneurbia: rezoning suburbia for self-sustaining life by Urban Nature, F&S Design Studio, Silverlion Design

Rather than taking the traditional, additive approach to solving problems, the Entrepreneurbia model simply abolishes poorly conceived zoning laws to attract forward-thinking small business owners and start-up companies. The result is a community of entrepreneurs who transform inefficient single-family dwellings and purely decorative landscape spaces into intelligent home-based businesses.

Urban Sprawl Repair Kit: Repairing The Urban Fabric by Galina Tahchieva

This set of simple infill techniques represents a sprawl repair toolkit to retrofit the 5 building prototypes that define Suburbia. These iconic detached structures and their parcels, via modest interventions, have the potential to contribute to a more diverse, cohesive urban fabric within a walkable and identifiable public realm.

Parasite Catalyst: Freeway Wind Turbines by Joseph De Le Ree

The highway system that dissects Phoenix is expansive. While connecting 515 square miles of the Sonoran desert, to support our sprawling culture, the valley freeways divide communities. My catalyst proposes to retroactively collect royalties on the land taken from social interaction. The design is a retrofitting replacement of the horizontal steel tube that currently holds freeway signage. The replacement will house two horizontal axis wind turbines that will be powered by the turbulence created from the passing cars.

Big Box Agriculture: A Productive Suburb by Forrest Fulton

As more businesses in the old suburbs vacate, either going out of business or moving to the new suburbs, large expanses of retail and parking lot real-estate become empty. This empty obsolescence is an opportunity for a new kind of business and landscape: It's an opportunity to reclaim the productive pastoral atmosphere of the land before sprawl.

T-Tree: A Towering Community of Sustainable Residences by Adil Azhiyev and Ivan Kudryavtsev (Light+Space)

For our T-trees social housing project we used the concept of a "tree". It is not a totally new idea, others worked with the concept in the 70s and 80s. The whole visual image of a building is constructed with two interwoven design principles. The first is supporting a core – the central block that contains the elevator and the stairs. The second is the communication module. As the trunk of the tree, which is where the blocks are mounted a branch with leaves, in this project – it is communication modules.

Frog's Dream: McMansions Turned into Biofilter Water Treatment Plants by Calvin Chiu

What to do about all those abandoned McMansions? Turn them into wetlands and natural water filtration systems for urban centers.

Ex Box: Second Lives for Ghost Malls and Big Box Stores by Ha Young Ihn

There is a movement of reusing abandoned malls for community spaces. EX-BOX will allow the building to be self-sustaining by providing energy and space for public events. It provides renewable energy by maximizing the solar exposure with the use of various angles. By plugging in the programs that add density to the empty space and provides better environment, the space will bring people and allow community events.

Andrew Wyld crearted this piece of art as part of a competition by the BBC to win a very small part in the new radio drama versions of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. They were creating an online adventure game set in the world of the books, and Andrew and Nolan Worthington (we'll be talking about him soon) were declared co-winners of the competition. He drew his pictures as a homage to the 2D look of the Guide in the television series, with a bit of an update, and he's created several other pictures from the series that you can take a look at in his gallery. You can hear Andrew as a bass player falling out of a window in one of the episodes, as well as play the game online.