48th annual Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition winners revealed
The winners of the 48th annual Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition have been announced, with some the images showing just how terrifying the small world actually is. First prize in this year’s competition was awarded to Swiss photographer Grigorii Timin, supervised by Dr. Michel Milinkovitch at the University of Geneva, for his stunning image of an embryonic hand of a Madagascar giant day gecko. Utilising high-resolution microscopy (63x magnification) and image-stitching to capture the species of Phelsuma grandis day gecko, Timin merged hundreds of images together to create the final image of his gecko. He performed whole-mount fluorescent staining and tissue clearing to capture the entire embryonic hand with a confocal microscope.
“This embryonic hand is about 3mm in length, which is a huge sample for high-resolution microscopy,” said Timin. “The scan consists of 300 tiles, each containing about 250 optical sections, resulting in more than two days of acquisition and approximately 200 GB of data.”
Australian Dr. Caleb Dawson took out second place for his image of breast tissue showing contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk-producing alveoli. Taking a week to process, the myoepithelial cells were stained with multiple rounds of fluorescent dyes and captured with a confocal microscope. Third place went to Satu Paavonsalo and Dr. Sinem Karaman for their image of blood vessel networks in the intestine of an adult mouse.
In addition to the top placegetters, a total of 89 entries were recognized out of the thousands of entries received from scientists and artists across the globe. Head to the Nikon Small World website to see to top entries.
2022 Photomicrography Competition.
The 2022 judging panel
- Dr. Gustavo Menezes, Associate Professor and Head of the Center for Gastrointestinal Biology at the Federal University of Minas Gerais
- Dr. Nikolay Nikolov, Senior Video Journalist at The New York Times
- Annaliese Nurnberg, Photo Editor at The Washington Post
- Dr. Clare Waterman, Cell Biologist and Member of the National Academy of Sciences
2022 Photomicrography Competition.
Top 10 winners
1st Place
Grigorii Timin & Dr. Michel Milinkovitch
University of Geneva
Department of Genetics and Evolution
Geneva, Switzerland
Embryonic hand of a Madagascar giant day gecko (Phelsuma grandis)
Confocal
63X (Objective Lens Magnification)
2nd Place
Dr. Caleb Dawson
WEHI, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Department of Immunology
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Breast tissue showing contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk-producing alveoli
Confocal
40X (Objective Lens Magnification)
3rd Place
Satu Paavonsalo & Dr. Sinem Karaman
University of Helsinki
Individualized Drug Therapy Research Program, Faculty of Medicine
Helsinki, Finland
Blood vessel networks in the intestine of an adult mouse
Confocal
10X (Objective Lens Magnification)
4th Place
Dr. Andrew Posselt
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
Department of Surgery
Mill Valley, California, USA
Long-bodied cellar/daddy long-legs spider (Pholcus phalangioides)
Image Stacking
3X (Objective Lens Magnification)
5th Place
Alison Pollack
San Anselmo, California, USA
Slime mold (Lamproderma)
Image Stacking, Reflected Light
10X (Objective Lens Magnification)
6th Place
Ole Bielfeldt
Macrofying
Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Unburned particles of carbon released when the hydrocarbon chain of candle wax breaks down
Brightfield, Image Stacking
2.5X (Objective Lens Magnification)
7th Place
Dr. Jianqun Gao & Prof. Glenda Halliday
University of Sydney
Central Clinical School / Professor Glenda Halliday's Lab
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Human neurons derived from neural stem cells (NSCs)
Confocal, Fluorescence
20X (Objective Lens Magnification)
8th Place
Dr. Nathanaël Prunet
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Department of Biology
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Growing tip of a red algae
Confocal
10X (Objective Lens Magnification)
9th Place
Dr. Marek Sutkowski
Warsaw University of Technology
Institute of Microelectronics and Optoelectronics
Warsaw, Poland
Liquid crystal mixture (smectic Felix 015)
Image Stacking, Polarized Light
40X (Objective Lens Magnification)
10th Place
Murat Öztürk
Ankara, Turkey
A fly under the chin of a tiger beetle
Image Stacking
3.7X (Objective Lens Magnification)
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