Noticias

Nikon is pleased to reveal winners of the 2013 annual Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition, awarding first prize to longtime competitor Wim van Egmond of The Netherlands for his image Chaetoceros debilis (marine diatom). A freelance photographer and artist with a passion for aquatic microorganisms, Egmond sought to blend art and science to capture the complexity and stunning detail of this fragile helical chain.

Along with Egmond, over 100 other winners from around the world were recognized this year for excellence in photomicrography, sometimes for multiple entries. As always, winning images were selected for displaying both artistic quality and masterful scientific technique.

“This competition brings together some of the top talent from around the world, from all walks of life and scientific disciplines, with more and more incredible entries submitted each year,” said Eric Flem, Communications Manager, Nikon Instruments. “After 39 years we are proud to watch the competition continue to grow, allowing us to honor this pool of talented researchers, artists, and photomicrographers, and showcase the importance and beauty of the work they do in the realm of scientific imaging.”

First place winner Wim van Egmond is one of Small World’s top photomicrographers, with now twenty still images recognized as finalists throughout the last decade. To capture the great complexity and detail of his winning diatom in three-dimensions, Egmond employed a partial image stack of more than 90 images. Foregoing traditional bright, saturated colors, he adjusted the illumination to create a subdued, blue background to contrast with the natural yellow-brown color of the diatom.

“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,” said Egmond of his winning image. “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.”

While the top five images this year vary greatly in subject matter, technique and scientific discipline, they all prove to demonstrate the artistic skill and technical prowess of the photomicrographers behind them.

Top Five Images:

1.Mr. Wim van Egmond,Micropolitan Museum,Chaetoceros debilis(marine diatom), a colonial plankton organism

2.Dr. Joseph Corbo,Washington University School of Medicine,Chrysemys picta(painted turtle) retina

3.Dr. Alvaro Esteves Migotto,Universidade de São Paulo, Centro de Biologia Marinha, Marine worm

4.Mr. Rogelio Moreno Gill, Parameciumsp. showing the nucleus, mouth and water expulsion vacuoles

5.Dr. Kieran Boyle,University of Glasgow, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, Hippocampal neuron receiving excitatory contacts

The distinguished judges from this year’s exceptional panel are, as always, comprised of some of the most prominent and distinguished minds working in the scientific community and science journalism today. The team charged with selecting the 2013 Nikon Small World winning images includes:

•Dr. Ron Vale, Professor and Vice-Chair, Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, University of California – San Francisco (UCSF); Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Founder, iBioSeminars.Org.

•Dr. Joan Ruderman, President and Director of the Marine Biological Laboratory

•Alan Taylor, Senior Editor, The Atlantic’s “In Focus”

•Cara Santa Maria, science communicator; Co-host & Producer, TakePart Live on Pivot

•Eric Clark, Research Coordinator and Applications Developer at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University

•Michael W. Davidson, Director of the Optical and Magneto-Optical Imaging Center at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University

Top images from the 2013 Nikon Small World Competition will be exhibited in a full-color calendar and through a national museum tour. For additional information, please visit www.nikonsmallworld.com, or follow the conversation on Facebook and Twitter @NikonSmallWorld.

The Official 2013 Nikon Small World Winners

The following are the Top 20 and Honorable Mentions for Nikon Small World 2013. The full gallery of winning images, along with Images of Distinction can be viewed at www.nikonsmallworld.com.

1st Place

Mr. Wim van Egmond

Micropolitan Museum

Berkel en Rodenrijs, Zuid Holland, The Netherlands

Chaetoceros debilis (marine diatom), a colonial plankton organism

Differential Interference Contrast, Image Stacking

250X

2nd Place

Dr. Joseph Corbo

Washington University School of Medicine

St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Chrysemys picta (painted turtle) retina

Differential Interference Contrast

400X

3rd Place

Dr. Alvaro Esteves Migotto

Universidade de São Paulo, Centro de Biologia Marinha

São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Marine worm

Stereomicroscopy, Darkfield

20X

4th Place

Mr. Rogelio Moreno Gill

Panama City, Panamá

Paramecium sp. showing the nucleus, mouth and water expulsion vacuoles

Differential Interference Contrast

40X

5th Place

Dr. Kieran Boyle

University of Glasgow, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology

Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Hippocampal neuron receiving excitatory contacts

Fluorescence and Confocal

63X

6th Place

Miss Dorit Hockman

University of Cambridge

Cambridge, UK

Chamaeleo calyptratus (veiled chameleon), embryo showing cartilage (blue) and bone (red)

Brightfield

7th Place

Dr. Jan Michels

Institute of Zoology, Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

Kiel, Germany

Adhesive pad on a foreleg of Coccinella septempunctata (ladybird beetle)

Confocal, Autofluorescence

20X

8th Place

Ms. Magdalena Turzańska

University of Wrocław

Institute of Experimental Biology, Department of Plant Developmental Biology, University of Wrocław

Wrocław, Poland

Barbilophozia sp. (a leafy liverwort, bryophyte plant) and cyanobacteria

Epi-autofluorescence under UV light, z-stack reconstruction

50X

9th Place

Mr. Mark A. Sanders

University Imaging Centers, University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Insect wrapped in spider web

Confocal, Autofluorescence, Image Stacking

85X

10th Place

Mr. Ted Kinsman

Department of Imaging and Photo Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology

Rochester, New York, USA

Thin section of a dinosaur bone preserved in clear agate

Focus Stacking

10X

11th Place

Miss Vitoria Tobias Santos

Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rodrigo Evo Devo Group

Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Macrobrachium shrimp (ghost shrimp) eye

Stereomicroscopy

140X

12th Place

Dr. Pedro Barrios-Perez

CPFC (nanofabrication), National Research Council of Canada/Information and Communication Technologies

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Silicon dioxide on polydimethylglutarimide-based resist

Bright field microscopy

200X

13th Place

Dr. Michael Paul Nelson and Samantha Smith

Department of Pathology/Neuropathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Mouse vertebra section

Focus Stacking

200X

14th Place

Mr. Zhong Hua

Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Peripheral nerves in E11.5 mouse embryo

Confocal

5X

15th Place

Dr. Christian Q. Scheckhuber

Goethe University

Frankfurt, Germany

Podospora anserina (fungus) filamentous tip cells

Fluorescence

630X

16th Place

Mr. Geir Drange

Asker, Norway

Pityohyphantes phrygianus (sheet weaver spider) with a parasitic wasp larva on the abdomen

Reflected Light, Focus Stacking

5X

17th Place

Dr. Alexandre William Moreau

Institute of Neurology, University College London

London, UK

Pyramidal neurons and their dendrites visualized in the visual cortex of a mouse brain

2-Photon, Focus Stacking, Fluorescence, Patch clamp

40X

18th Place

Mr. Christian Sardet

Department of Life Sciences, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Villefranche-sur-Mer, France

Annelid larva

Darkfield

100X

19th Place

Dr. David Ward

dgward.com

Oakdale, California, USA

Nerve and muscle thin section

Brightfield, Image Stacking

40X

20th Place

Dr. James Burchfield

The Garvan Institute

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

The explosive dynamics of sugar transport in fat cells

Live Cell Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence

Honorable Mentions

Mr. Thomas Balla

Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

Crystal formation of sulfosalicylic acid, a chemical used in medicine

Polarized Light

200X

Dr. Michael J. Boyle

Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Marine Station

Fort Pierce, Florida, USA

The pelagosphera larva of Nephasoma pellucidum (peanut worm) after four days of development

Confocal

40X

Mr. Geir Drange

Asker, Norway

The egg sack of a pirate spider (Ero sp.)

Reflected Light, Focus Stacking

5X

Dr. Tomokazu Kawashima

Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory

Singapore, Singapore

Mature Arabidopsis (thale cress) embryo sac showing the central cell F-actin (cyan, surface rendered), the egg cell nucleus (yellow) and the synergid cells (magenta)

Confocal, Image Stacking

60X

Mr. Charles Krebs

Charles Krebs Photography

Issaquah, Washington, USA

Peacock feather section

Reflected Light

50X

Mr. Frederic Labaune

Education Nationale

Auxonne, France

Crystallization of tartrazine (dye primarily used as a food coloring)

Differential Interference Contrast

40X

Dr. Mariela Loschi

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Detail of the microtubules and nucleus in a COS-7 (Cercopithecus aethiops kidney, SV40 transformed) cultured cell

Confocal

100X

Dr. David Maitland

www.davidmaitland.com

Microscopy

Feltwell, Norfolk, UK

Radula (rasping organ) of the mollusc Buccinum undatum (Common Whelk)

Differential Interference Contrast

200X

Dr. Bryan A. Millis

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Laboratory of Cell Structure and Dynamics, National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Bethesda, Maryland, USA

Small intestinal section from a mouse expressing GFP-tagged non-muscle myosin II

Large format image stitch using swept-field confocal fluorescence microscopy

200X

Mr. Waldo Nell

Surrey, British Columbia, Canada

Crystallized purple food dye

Darkfield

640X

Dr. Csaba Pintér

Keszthely, Zala, Hungary

Cynoglossum officinale (gypsy flower) seeds

Focus Stacking

3X

Mr. Nikola Rahme

Budapest, Hungary

Flat bark beetle - part of the head and prothorax with phoretic mites.

Reflected Light

10X

Dr. Andrew J. Woolley, Himanshi Desai and Kevin Otto

Purdue University

West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

Adult mouse foot showing blood vessels, immune cells and soft tissues

Confocal

100X

About Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition

The Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition is open to anyone with an interest in photography. Participants may submit their images in traditional 35mm format, or upload digital images directly at www.nikonsmallworld.com. For additional information, contact Nikon Small World, Nikon Instruments Inc., 1300 Walt Whitman Road, Melville, NY 11747, USA or phone (631) 547-8569. Entry forms for Nikon’s 2014 Small World Competition may also be downloaded from www.nikonsmallworld.com.