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Nikon Instruments Inc. today unveiled the winners of its 15th annual Nikon Small World in Motion Video Competition, an integral component of the Nikon Small World competition and a showcase of the world’s most dynamic microscopic imagery. The first-place prize was awarded to retired engineer-turned-microscopist Jay McClellan for his striking video capturing the self-pollination of a thymeleaf speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia). The process demonstrates the resilience found in nature, revealing one of the hidden strategies select species of plants use to adapt and survive.

McClellan's work fuses decades of experience in industrial machine vision system development with a passion for microscopy and photography, resulting in videos that are both mesmerizing and informative. His winning video captures a tiny blue blossom opening to the morning sun, its stamens elongating until one curls toward the pistil, dusting the stigma with pollen and completing self-pollination. “This isn’t some exotic plant you’d need to travel the world to find. It’s a common ‘weed’ that might be growing right under your feet,” said McClellan. “ I love the idea that anyone could discover beauty like this if they just looked closely.”

Thymeleaf speedwells bloom quickly and unpredictably, meaning filming such a fleeting biological process required a perfect storm of preparation, timing, and technique. To capture the video, McClellan had to anticipate movements and program a custom motion-control system to keep the reproductive structures perfectly in frame. He also employed advanced focus-stacking techniques to maintain crystal clarity across focal planes, a challenge that led him to develop his own hardware and software for microscopic video. “I may capture many terabytes of raw footage for a single shot,” he explained. “Running the focus-stacking overnight is like waiting for Christmas morning — you never know whether you’ll get a disappointment or something amazing.”

McClellan emphasized the honor he feels to be among the many talented individuals who have participated in Nikon Small World for over five decades, and the importance of bringing the microscopic world to light: “The best part for me is not winning a prize but getting the opportunity to share my work with the world and let people see microscopic wonders in a new way.”

McClellan also earned an honorable mention in this year's Small World in Motion competition for his video of the dissolution and crystallization of cobalt, copper, and sodium chlorides. He has now placed four total videos in the competition since 2023, including his movie of water droplets evaporating from the wing scales of a peacock butterfly, for which he earned second place in the 2024 Small World in Motion competition.

“As we celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Small World in Motion competition, this year’s winners showcase the extraordinary choreography of life unfolding at a scale beyond ordinary sight,” said Eric Flem, Senior Manager, Communications and CRM at Nikon Instruments. “Jay McClellan and all our other winners’ videos reflect the competition’s enduring purpose to inspire wonder, fuel discovery, and showcase the artistry inherent in scientific exploration.”

Outside of Nikon Small World, McClellan is currently working on a nature documentary featuring tiny creatures, using a portable version of his video rig to take his imaging techniques into the field.

Second place was awarded to Benedikt Pleyer for his video of volvox algae swimming in a water drop that had been pipetted into the central opening of a Japanese 50 Yen Coin.

Third place was awarded to Dr. Eric Vitriol for his video of actin and mitochondria in mouse brain tumor cells.

The 2025 judging panel included:

• Deboki Chakravarti, PhD, Science Communicator, Host and Creator of "Journey to the Microcosmos," "Tiny Matters," "Scishow Tangents," and "Crash Course Organic Chemistry."
• Jeff DelViscio, Chief Multimedia Editor and Executive Producer at Scientific American
• Andrew Moore, PhD, Postdoctoral Scientist in the Lippincott-Schwartz Lab at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus
• Liz Roth-Johnson, PhD, Curator of Life Sciences at the California Science Center
• W. Gregory Sawyer, PhD, Chief BioEngineering Officer and Chair of the Department of BioEngineering at the Moffitt Cancer Center

NIKON SMALL WORLD IN MOTION WINNERS

1st Place
Jay McClellan
Saranac, Michigan, USA 
Self-pollination in a flower of thymeleaf speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia) 
Time lapse, Image Stacking 
5X (Objective Lens Magnification)

2nd Place
Benedikt Pleyer
Kirchberg, Bavaria, Germany 
Volvox algae swimming in water drop that has been pipetted into the central opening of a Japanese 50 Yen Coin 
Darkfield 
50X (Objective Lens Magnification)

3rd Place
Dr. Eric Vitriol
Augusta University 
Department of Neuroscience & Regenerative Medicine 
Augusta, Georgia, USA 
Actin and mitochondria in mouse brain tumor cells 
Super-Resolution 
40X (Objective Lens Magnification)

4th Place
Penny Fenton
Ipswich, Suffolk, United Kingdom 
A tardigrade moving around a volvox algae colony 
Darkfield 
20X (Objective Lens Magnification)

5th Place
Dr. Alvaro Migotto
Centro de Biologia Marinha 
São Sebastião, São Paulo, Brazil 
A newborn sea urchin walking along the seabed 
Darkfield 
10X (Objective Lens Magnification)

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Dr. Maik C. Bischoff
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
Department of Biology 
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA 
Developing testis of a fly showing actin cytoskeleton (teal) and nuclei (red) Fluorescence
25X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Scott Burlingham, Dr. Soham Ghosh, Gabriel Galindo & Dr. Hiroshi Kimura
Colorado State University 
Department of Biochemistry 
Fort Collins, Colorado, USA 
24-hour time-lapse of mouse embryonic fibroblasts reforming their monolayer after scratch 
Confocal, Fluorescence 
40X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Alexandre Dumoulin
University of Zurich 
Department of Molecular Life Sciences 
Zurich, Switzerland 
In vitro growth of chick sensory neurons, shown in gold using a dye marking their internal structure (18 hour time lapse)
Confocal 
40X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Laurent Formery
Stanford University 
Department of Biology 
Pacific Grove, California, USA 
Metamorphosis of two sea urchin larvae, from swimming bilateral larvae into pentaradial crawling juveniles 
Brightfield 
5X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Quinten Geldhof
Winthrop, Massachusetts, USA 
Circulatory system, gut, and claw function of an American dog tick 
Darkfield 
4X and 10X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Sebastian Golojuch
University of Oxford 
Department of Chemistry 
Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom 
Delivery of a synthetic mRNA to cultured HeLa cells 
Spinning Disk Confocal 
60X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Ziwen He & Min Y. Pack
University of Minnesota 
Chemical Engineering and Material Science 
Minneapolis, Minnesota , USA 
Glycerol/water droplet impacting on a thin oil layer 
Confocal 
5X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Patrick C. Hickey
Hypha Research Limited 
Edinburgh, Midlothian, United Kingdom 
Time lapse of hyphal fusion and mitochondrial dynamics in mycelium of a morel fungus (Morchella) 
Confocal 
60X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Jay McClellan
Saranac, Michigan, USA 
Dissolution and crystallization of cobalt, copper and sodium chlorides 
Darkfield, Time Lapse, Image Stacking 
5X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Grace McLaughlin & Dr. Amy Gladfelter
UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University 
UNC: Department of Biology, Duke: Department of Cell Biology 
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA 
Nuclei flowing through a fungal mycelium 
Confocal
40X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Alvaro Migotto
Centro de Biologia Marinha 
São Sebastião, São Paulo, Brazil 
Marine mollusk larva before and after metamorphosis 
Darkfield 
10X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Irina Petrova Adamatzky
UWE Bristol 
College of Arts, Technology and Environment 
Bristol, Somerset, United Kingdom 
A Japanese boxer mantis (Acromantis japonica) laying her ootheca (egg case) 
Reflected Light 
2X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Benedikt Pleyer
Kirchberg, Bavaria, Germany 
Cyanobacteria (Oscillatoria princeps) filaments from Ishigaki, Japan 
Polarized Light 
200X - 400X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Louis Romette & Dr. Christophe Leterrier
Aix-Marseille Université 
Institut de NeuroPhysioPathologie 
Marseille, France 
Live 65-hour recording of rat hippocampal neuron growth (day 3 to day 6) 
Confocal 
60X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Gaylene Russell McEvoy, Dr. Graham Fraser & Dr. Hamza Shogan
Memorial University of Newfoundland 
Division of BioMedical Sciences 
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada 
Red blood cells flowing through a capillary network in rat skeletal muscle 
Brightfield 
10X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Zachary Sanchez
Vanderbilt University 
Nashville, Tennessee , USA 
Contracting human heart muscle cells showing mitochondria (red) and calcium waves (blue) 
Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM) 
60X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Wim van Egmond
Micropolitan Museum 
Berkel en Rodenrijs, Zuid Holland, Netherlands 
Cornflower root hairs 
Image Stacking 
5X and 25X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Wim van Egmond
Micropolitan Museum 
Berkel en Rodenrijs, Zuid Holland, Netherlands 
Hat thrower fungus (Pilobolus) on rabbit dung 
Image Stacking 
5X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Janosch Waldkircher
Basel, Basel-Stadt, Switzerland 
Male dung beetle (Sulcophanaeus imperator). Composition of 7,073 individual images
Focus Stacking Video 
1.4X (Objective Lens Magnification)