Very small things can make a really big impression, if you look closely enough. This year’s best microscope photos from the Nikon Small World contest will give you an eyeful of some of the amazing things you usually can’t see at all.
More than 2,000 images from 80 different countries were entered in the 39th annual competition. The panel of judges that combed through all of them to find the best ones included scientists, journalists and microscope experts. The photos were judged on their originality, the information they conveyed, the technical skills that created them and their visual impact.
The winning image, by freelance photographer Wim van Egmond of The Netherlands, is an amazing view of a colony of marine diatoms, a type of phytoplankton. The colony is shaped like a hairy helical ribbon. To get all the detail and give a sense of three dimensions, Egmond used a technique called image stacking to piece together more than 90 images.
“I approach micrographs as if they are portraits. The same way you look at a person and try to capture their personality, I observe an organism and try to capture it as honestly and realistically as possible,” Egmond said in a press release from Nikon today. “At the same time, this image is about form, rhythm and composition. The positioning of the helix, the directions of the bristles, the subdued colors and contrast all bring together a balance that is both dynamic and tranquil.”
Here we have the top 20 images from this year’s competition.
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1st Place: Wim van Egmond, Micropolitan Museum, Berkel en Rodenrijs, Zuid Holland, The Netherlands
Subject: Chaetoceros debilis (marine diatom), a colonial plankton organism
Technique: Differential Interference Contrast, Image Stacking
Magnification: 250x
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2nd Place: Joseph Corbo, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
Subject: Chrysemys picta (painted turtle) retina
Technique: Differential Interference Contrast
Magnification: 400x
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3rd Place: Alvaro Esteves Migotto, Universidade de São Paulo, Centro de Biologia Marinha São Paulo, Brazil
Subject: Marine worm
Technique: Stereomicroscopy, Darkfield
Magnification: 20x
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4th Place: Rogelio Moreno Gill, Panama City, Panamá
Subject: Paramecium sp. showing the nucleus, mouth and water expulsion vacuoles
Technique: Differential Interference Contrast
Magnification: 40x
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5th Place: Kieran Boyle, University of Glasgow, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, Scotland
Subject: Hippocampal neuron receiving excitatory contacts
Technique: Fluorescence and Confocal
Magnification: 63x
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6th Place: Dorit Hockman, University of Cambridge, England
Subject: Chamaeleo calyptratus (veiled chameleon), embryo showing cartilage (blue) and bone (red)
Technique: Brightfield
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7th Place: Jan Michels, Institute of Zoology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany
Subject: Adhesive pad on a foreleg of Coccinella septempunctata (ladybird beetle)
Technique: Confocal, Autofluorescence
Magnification: 20x
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8th Place: Magdalena Turzańska, Institute of Experimental Biology, University of Wrocław, Poland
Subject: Barbilophozia sp. (a leafy liverwort, bryophyte plant) and cyanobacteria
Technique: Epi-autofluorescence under UV light, z-stack reconstruction
Magnification: 50x
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9th Place: Mark A. Sanders, University Imaging Centers, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Subject: Insect wrapped in spider web
Technique: Confocal, Autofluorescence, Image Stacking
Magnification: 85x
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10th Place: Ted Kinsman, Department of Imaging and Photo Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York
Subject: Thin section of a dinosaur bone preserved in clear agate
Technique: Focus Stacking
Magnification: 10x
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11th Place: Vitoria Tobias Santos, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Subject: Macrobrachium shrimp (ghost shrimp) eye
Technique: Stereomicroscopy
Magnification: 140x
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12th Place: Pedro Barrios-Perez, CPFC (nanofabrication), National Research Council of Canada/Information and Communication Technologies, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Subject: Silicon dioxide on polydimethylglutarimide-based resist
Technique: Bright field microscopy
Magnification: 200x
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13th Place: Michael Paul Nelson and Samantha Smith, Department of Pathology/Neuropathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Subject: Mouse vertebra section
Technique: Focus Stacking
Magnification: 200x
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14th Place: Zhong Hua, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
Subject: Peripheral nerves in E11.5 mouse embryo
Technique: Confocal
Magnification: 5x
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15th Place: Christian Q. Scheckhuber, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
Subject: Podospora anserina (fungus) filamentous tip cells
Technique: Fluorescence
Magnification: 630x
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16th Place: Geir Drange, Asker, Norway
Subject: Pityohyphantes phrygianus (sheet weaver spider) with a parasitic wasp larva on the abdomen
Technique: Reflected Light, Focus Stacking
Magnification: 5x
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17th Place: Alexandre William Moreau, Institute of Neurology, University College London, England
Subject: Pyramidal neurons and their dendrites visualized in the visual cortex of a mouse brain
Technique: 2-Photon, Focus Stacking, Fluorescence, Patch clamp
Magnification: 40x
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18th Place: Christian Sardet, Department of Life Sciences, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Subject: Annelid larva
Technique: Darkfield
Magnification: 100x
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20th Place: James Burchfield, The Garvan Institute, Sydney, Australia
Subject: The explosive dynamics of sugar transport in fat cells
Technique: Live Cell Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence
Magnification: 1,000,000X
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