Blue mushrooms, shy trees and glowing seas: Beaker Street science photography prize – in pictures
The 12 finalists will be exhibited at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery during Beaker Street festival from 6 to 17 August, including images of newborn fish, a native wasp and satellite trails across the night sky
Mon 8 Jun 2026 20.00 EDT
Last modified on Mon 8 Jun 2026 20.32 EDT
Just Another Bioluminescent Tantrum
Bioluminescence from a large bloom of Noctiluca scintillans. These lazy microscopic organisms multiply in the millions and when agitated they glow blue to create a vast shimmering coastline. Photograph: Deni Cupit
Shy
Crown shyness is the pattern of gaps that forms between neighbouring tree crowns. One hypothesis is that these gaps result from mechanical abrasion: as adjacent branches collide in the wind it damages sensitive growing tips and limits further outward growth. Whatever the cause, the result is a canopy with channels of sky rather than a continuous layer of leaf cover. This photograph shows a myrtle (Nothofagus cunninghamii) canopy.Photograph: Nathan Waterhouse
Absolute Precision
Tasmania has more than 1,000 species of native wasp. This Darwin wasp uses her sensitive antennae to detect the movements of a beetle larva deep in its tunnel in a tree trunk. She then unsheathes her ovipositor and, using special grooves on her hind legs, manoeuvres this thin tube expertly through the tunnels in the wood. Once her ovipositor makes contact with a beetle larva she will lay one or more eggs that will develop inside the larva. Photograph: Keith Martin-Smith
Alpine Overture
The ‘turning of the fagus’ in Tasmania’s alpine regions is one of the most spectacular seasonal events to witness. The leaves of the deciduous beech or ‘fagus’ (Nothofagus gunnii) transform from green to a vibrant tapestry of red, yellow and orange in autumnal transition. Photograph: Chelsea Bell
Trust Fall
Fallen leaves of the Nothofagus gunnii nestle in a cradle of wood in the Mount Field national park. Their vibrant copper hues are thanks to seasonal senescence: not just the process of ageing, but of chlorophyll degradation and nutrient resorption by the tree in the lead-up to winter’s arrival. Photograph: Amber Summers
Hygrocybe Firma
Hygrocybe firma is a fungus whose very small, red sporing bodies appear in Tasmanian forests in autumn. It has a biotrophic relationship with surrounding vegetation, where the mycelium lives inside or in close contact with plant roots. The red colour pops amid the forest greens, often making for lovely colour compositions.Photograph: Charlie Chadwick
Underwater Bouquet
These magnificent hydroids (Ralpharia magnifica) look like a bouquet of underwater flowers but this animal is in fact related to jellyfish. Like jellies, they have tentacles with stinging cells that catch prey as it drifts past. They can form small colonies or can live as a single organism, and have a complicated lifecycle that comprises alternating sessile (attached to one place) and free-swimming stages.Photograph: Alison McNeice
My Home Is Being Eaten
A red handfish (Thymichthys politus), one of Australia’s rarest endemic fishes, rests among algae that is being eaten by a short-spined sea urchin (Heliocidaris erythrogramma). Found only in a single coastal habitat in southern Tasmania, the red handfish ‘walks’ along the seafloor using modified pectoral fins rather than swimming. With fewer than 250 individuals remaining in the wild, the species is on the edge of extinction. Photograph: Francisco Albergoli
Death of Essence
The untimely death of this orange-rimmed satin moth (Thalaina selenaea) in Tasmania’s Queenstown reminds us that water surface tension only tends to reveal itself when acting on a structure. Here the hydrophobic wing scales undergo disaggregation, giving the wing edges a visually frayed quality as the pigmented scales separate and drift slowly away. Surface tension draws water into microscopic gaps beneath exposed edges of the overlapping scales to create lifting effects. Photograph: Lucy Marwood
A Ghostly Chimaera
An Australian ghostshark (Callorhinchus milii) scours the seagrass beds of the river Derwent for an easy meal. This is not actually a shark but a ‘chimaera’, a group of cartilaginous fish that branched off from the sharks and rays nearly 400m years ago. Members of this species use their plough-shaped snouts to detect prey hidden in the sand. Photograph: Daniel van Duinkerken
First Day
One-day-old red handfish (Thymichthys politus) hatchlings. These fish are newborns; so they still display a substantial yolk sac. This structure contains nutrients that provide the fish with a secure food source during its development in the egg and its first days after emerging. The yolk sac will shrink and disappear as the fish continues growing and feeding from it; eventually, the hatchlings will start to look around for other food sources such as small amphipods. Photograph: Armando Ochoa Aguilar
Lunar Spiral
Humans have been observing and recording celestial events for thousands of years, with lunar eclipses holding a special fascination for us. This total eclipse was designated a ‘blood moon’ due to the reddish hue cast from Earth’s shadow and atmosphere. It was also a supermoon, so called because it appears larger than usual in our sky due to its close proximity to earth. This image depicts 24 separate photographs showing the progression of the eclipse through its many different phasesPhotograph: Bronwen Gunning
A Natural Wetsuit
The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) has a two‑layered fur for maintaining thermal homeostasis in Tasmania’s cold, freshwater environments. Its outer coat consists of tightly packed guard hairs rich in natural oils that provide water resistance. Beneath this lies a layer of fine, wool‑like underfur that traps a stable layer of air against the skin. Together, these layers form effective thermal insulation. Photograph: Alex Wheeler
Pipe Dream
Pipefish share the family Syngnathidae with seahorses, seadragons and pipehorses, all possessing the same tubular jaws and limited swimming ability. Like their relatives, pipefish have evolved sophisticated camouflage, mimicry and commensal relationships that help them survive in complex habitats. This spotted pipefish (Stigmatopora argus), photographed in the shallow seagrass beds of Trial Bay, Tasmania, is one such master of disguise. Photograph: Nicolas Horniblow
Satellite Trails Over Hobart Skies
Satellite trails are an increasingly visible sign of human impact on the night sky. As large constellations of satellites expand, long streaks of reflected sunlight appear in astronomical images, interfering with observations and altering the natural darkness of space. This is closely tied to light pollution: while traditional light pollution comes from ground-based sources, satellites introduce a new, moving form of sky brightness. Photograph: David NolanExplore more on these topics
