The 2004 Visions of Science awards.

Katharine Sanderson, London, UK

Chemistry can be a beautiful thing, a point well illustrated at this year's Visions of Science photographic awards where two prizes were snapped up by materials scientist, Rafal Dunin-Borkowski, from Cambridge University, UK.

It's hard to believe that his images of magnetic fields generating from nanocomposite materials are, as Dunin-Borkowski explains, 'exactly the way we take pictures on a daily basis'. Normally, he adds, 'we just show them to our friends'.

The awards, sponsored by Novartis and The Daily Telegraph, were presented by TV personality Adam Hart-Davis, who started out as a chemist. 'It's lovely that chemistry is coming in here so strongly,' he said of the awards, which have been running for five years.