A fascinating world of tiny structures They say a picture is worth a thousand words — although, in the nanosciences, it often takes quite a few words to describe what exactly we’re looking at in images showing structures or objects from the micro or nanoworld. Nevertheless, these beautiful microscopic images are a never-ending source of fascination. The Nano Image Award competition advertised by the SNI means that we receive beautiful images from research- ers from our network every year. These images help us to appeal to a wider audience and generate curiosity about the nanoworld. This “eye” was one of the winning images in 2024 and shows an unexpected circular defect on a silicon dioxide chip. It was noticed by SNI doctoral student Jibin N. Sunil while he was examining two-dimensional mono- layers using a dark-field microscope. (Image: Jibin N. Sunil, Department of Physics, University of Basel) SNI Annual Report 2024 59