Prize winning closeup of a sea urchin's teeth.

Credit: Pupa U. P. A. Gilbert and Christopher E. Killian; University of Wisconsin, Madison

Pupa Gilbert is a physics professor here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Here are some more — less close up — pictures of sea urchins by Professor Gilbert. And here's the National Science Foundation's announcement of the results of the 2012 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge, in which Gilbert wins first place and "people's choice" in the photography category. Honorable mentions and winners in other categories at the link. Also details about that very strange image of sea urchin teeth.

Instead of flat sides and sharp edges, the sea urchin produces "incredibly complex, intertwined" curved plates and fibers that interlock and fill space in the tooth as they grow. Though made of a substance normally as soft as chalk, the teeth are hard enough to grind rock....