In pictures: Royal Society photo award winners

An aerial photo of an Antarctic ice sheet looking like giant sugar cubes has been revealed as the overall winner of this year's Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition.

The science photography competition received more than 1,100 entries across its categories for Astronomy, Behaviour, Earth Science and Climatology, Ecology and Environmental Science, and Micro-imaging.

Icy Sugar Cubes, by Peter Convey, was named overall winner and winner in the Earth Science and Climatology category. The photo, taken in early 1995 during a flight over the English Coast (southern Antarctic Peninsula), shows the scale of unusual bi-directional crevassing as an ice sheet is stretched in two directions over an underlying rise.

Waiting in the Shallows, by Nico de Bruyn, was named winner in the Ecology and Environmental Science category. The photo shows killer whales suddenly entering a small bay at sub-Antarctic Marion Island, surprising a small huddle of King Penguins busy preening themselves in the water.

Ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere create a rare optical phenomenon in Daniel Michalik's photo, Lunar Spotlight, South Pole, Antarctica, which won the Astronomy category.

Winner in the Behaviour category was Antonia Doncila for this shot of a polar bear gazing into water near the eastern Greenland coast.

Olive Oil Drop Family Hanging Together, by Herve Elettro, was named winner in the Micro-imaging category.

Bow First, by Giuseppe Suaria, was named runner-up in the Earth Science and Climatology category. The photo was taken moments before the Russian research vessel Akademik Tryoshnikov deployed a Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (Rov) under the Mertz Glacier in Eastern Antarctica, to investigate the melting of the ice-sheet.

Toss the Scorpion - Indian Roller Playing with the Kill, by Susmita Datta was given an honourable mention in the Behaviour category.

Petr Horalek was given an honourable mention in the Astronomy category for this photo of the sky above the Paranal Observatory in Chile.

This image of lava flow at the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii earned Sabrina Koehler an honourable mention in the Earth Science and Climatology category.

This year's US solar eclipse was captured by Wei-Feng Xue, who was named runner-up in the Astronomy category.

Vladimir Gross was runner-up in the Micro-imaging category with this image of a 50-hour-old Hypsibius dujardini embryo, taken with a scanning electron microscope at a magnification of 1800x.

David Costantini was named runner-up in the Behaviour category with this image of arctic terns in Svalbard.

An honourable mention in the Ecology and Environmental Science category went to Carlos Jared for The Rainy Season, the Green Tree Frog and the Maintenance of Life.

Acari Trapped in Spiderweb, by Bernardo Segura, was given an honourable mention in the Micro-imaging category.

Invincible Ants, by Thomas Endlein, was named runner-up in Ecology and Environmental Science. Pitcher plants secrete sweet nectar on the rim and fang-like structures, which are very slippery for most insects except for one specialised ant (Camponotus schmitzii). The ants live in the curled hollow tendrils of the plant and manage to climb in and out of the pitcher without any difficulties to steal a bit of nectar, as seen here.

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