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Subscribe to RSSPhotographers entering Nikon's Photomicrography Competition captured stunning time-lapse images of organisms at work. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.
What could be more marvelous than seeing microscopic wonders at super-close range? How about watching those wonders at work, through the magic of time-lapse photography? That's the kind of wow factor that Nikon Instruments was going for with their first-ever Small World in Motion Photomicrography Competition — and it looks as if the winning entries have hit the mark.
Top honors go to Anna Franz, a researcher at the University of Oxford's Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, for her video showing how ink makes its way through the blood vessels of a chick embryo.
Anna Franz / Oriel College / Oxford
Dark ink outlines the blood system of a chick embryo in this frame from a video created by Anna Franz of Oriel College and the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at the University of Oxford. Franz carefully injected the ink into an artery within the egg and used a stereo microscope to track its flow through the vessels. The resulting video won top honors in Nikon's first Small World in Motion Photomicrography Competition. Click on the image to play the movie.
To create the time-lapse video, Franz cut a window into a chicken egg to expose the 72-hour-old embryo, and then carefully injected ink into its artery under a stereo microscope to visualize the blood system. Believe it or not, this was the first time Franz used this technique. She not only got it right; she also captured the blood's blossoming on video.
"This movie not only demonstrates the power of the heart and the complexity of vasculature of the chick embryo, but also reflects the beauty of nature's design," Franz said in today's announcement about the award-winners.
Second place goes to Dominik Paquet's glittering time-lapse view of mitochondria moving through sensory neurons in the tail of a zebrafish larva. Mitochondria are the energy-producing powerhouses of the cell, and play a vital role in sparking neural activity. This movie was created in the course of Paquet's research into the molecular and cellular pathologies associated with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Paquet and his team at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease in Munich were studying how problems with the transport of cellular components can affect nerve cells. Paquet says this video may represent the first-ever example of live imaging of mitochondrial transport in the nerve cells of an intact, unmodified vertebrate.
Dominik Paquet / German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases / Rockefeller U.
Medical researcher Dominik Paquet captured a time-lapse movie showing the movement of mitochondria through sensory neurons in the tail of a zebrafish larva. The movie won second place in Nikon's Small World in Motion contest. Click on the image to play the movie.
A microscopic crustacean known as a Daphnia or water flea plays with a Volvox, a spherical type of green algae, in a frame from a video that won third place in Nikon's Small World in Motion Photomicrography Competition. Click on the image to play the video.
The third-place winner is totally for fun. German vaccine researcher Ralf Wagner nabbed a Daphnia water flea from his garden pond and put it on his microscope slide for study. In Wagner's charming video, the water flea can be seen batting around a spherical Volvox green-algae colony as if it were a beach ball. Wagner acknowledges that the video doesn't document a scientific breakthrough; it just shows a microscopic creature interacting with its environment. It also shows off Wagner's flair for microscopy. A still image showing a similar scene was recognized as an image of distinction in the 2011 Nikon Small World contest. Wagner hopes that such pictures will remind viewers how much fun science can be, and perhaps inspire some of them to take up its study.
Nikon Instruments has been sponsoring the annual Small World contest for still photomicrography for 37 years — and Eric Flem, the company's communications manager, said the video contest was a natural outgrowth of the tradition. "We receive spectacular images for the Nikon Small World Competition, and it is with great excitement that we expand the competition to accommodate moving images and time-lapse photography," he said.
More than 200 contest entries were received for judging by Kurt Thorn, director of the Nikon Imaging Center at the University of California at San Francisco; and Michael Davidson, director of the Optical and Magneto-Optical Imaging Center at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University. In addition to the top three videos, the judges recognized 11 other entries with honorable mentions.
For the full playlist, click on over to the Nikon Small World website. You can also check in with Nikon Small World's Facebook page and its Twitter account, @NikonSmallWorld.
More small wonders:
- Nikon Small World's top 20 for 2011
- Nikon Small World's top 20 for 2010
- The world within a drop of water
- Greatest hits from Nikon Small World
- Olympus BioScapes' top 10 for 2011
- Olympus BioScapes' top 10 for 2010
- Olympus BioScapes' top 10 for 2009
- Visualizing science in 2011
- Visualizing science in 2010
- Visualizing science in 2009
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor, and was on the judging panel for the 2011 Nikon Small World Competition. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Praise God for His wonderful creations!
"Science is the study of God's creation"
His Servant
My favorite creation of His is tuberculosis!
He works in strange ways!
Tuberculosis, is what a world that rejects God has caused, along with deformities, war, starvation and every other disease.
God will create a perfect world someday, but in the meantime, our only real hope is in Christ.
Read John 3:16
Deformities? How did animals reject god?
People still believe in religion? its 2012.....
Oh so that's where deformities, war and starvation came from! Thanks for clearing that up...
Try reading "The Evolution of Species" sometime, then you can join us here on earth!
I'm really starting to think the heavy handed religious posts are done by a troll to raise the ire of everyone else.
Wow didnt take long for someone to feel the need to throw is holyness into an article that has nothing to do with religion... and who says theists are pushy?
Edward - you crack me up! but the scary part, you arent trying to be funny.
wah, wah, waaaaaaaah
HA!!!
Edward you sure are a peice of work sir! The last thing this world needs is 7 billion bible thumpers.
eddie, im gona @!$%# u up with some truth right now.... you are god.
there is no external world, there is only consciousness. 1 infinite consciousness that takes many forms.
u are god
Edward -
Are you actually admitting that God, who is perfect if every way, created an imperfect world? Apparently your "perfect world" is in serious conflict with God’s idea of a “perfect world.” Isn't it blasphemy to not accept all of God's creation, past, present and future, as being ultimately perfect? Perfect just as it is? Right now? Your imperfection (doubt/denial) would seem to prove that “errors“ in creation abound. Just sayin'.
Edward - Now I could accept your first statement, but your statement about diseases and war being God's punishment, now that is so dark ages. Even in the 15th century, they knew that some diseases were natural and followed Aristotle's teachings in medicine to deal with it. So you haven't learned anything over 600 years.
God doesn't punish us, we do it to ourselves. We're intelligent enough to cure just about any disease, but not caring enough to make it affordable to all. Something as simple as a common cold would cost pharmaceutical company's billions of dollars of revenue. We think nothing about building a 2 million dollar missile to blow up a mud hut, but don't make health care affordable for everyone. It's the way of the World, you don't care about the people in India, but you should. They have a strain to TB that doesn't have a cure, yet it goes unchecked because it's over there. God gives us our first breath of life, he takes our last, how we treat one another in life has a lot to do longevity, a little luck also helps. Thousands of Innocent people die each year from drunk drivers, who's fault is that ? We are what we are, human, in general, greedy, selfish, self centered individuals. It doesn't take bible bumpers to make the world a better place, it takes common sense, a little caring and a lot of sharing. 12 men on the field cost the Pat's the Super Bowl, God tried to help, but they played stupid football. Prayers don't cover being stupid.
The movies like little things. That explains the popularity of Seth Green and Daniel Radcliffe ! Just thought the pro and anti religous views could use a little lightening up.
I am just going to have to get a darkfield set up for microscope at home and a phase contrast set up.
Edward - To be more politically correct, you should have added "Science is the study of nature" for the non-believers. Then you would have shown no bias. Don't be surprised when the atheists attack your comments.
"Timmy!"
Timmy..... timmy timmy timmy timmy. Ahhhhh, timmmmaaaaaaaayyyyyyy
Everyone likes cute Daphnia playing with a ball.
If it wasn't for Alan Boyle's contributions here, I'd most likely have a different home page. Always delivers the mind-expanding works of men and women seeking difficult answers to ponderous questions.
I like the breaks form the news drudgery Alan provides us with. Thank you, Sir.
LemansOwner -
Furthermore, these articles actually make sense, too! Don't pretend to understand them all, or even half, but they always compel me to learn more through countless Google searches. Have to admit that I yet have some trouble mentally pronouncing terms that insist upon using words with 20+ syllables!
Wow, that's high praise ... but if there's gobbledygook, I'm not doing it right. My aim is to write prose that's as clear as spring water. Sorry for the murk. I'm so glad you're sticking with us, and thanks for making my day.
Alan -
There is never any "gobbledygook" in your writing. And, your prose is also poetic, to boot! When you write about "String Theory" again, I will be frantically cross-referencing via Google! Any murkiness is sorely my limited knowledge, not your explanation! Sometimes the light bulb comes on. Perhaps not as bright as I might wish, but dim as it may be it is "light" nevertheless. I will continue to read your articles and will, one day, be able to exclaim: “Aha!”
No "gobbledygook" whatsoever... Keep up the good work.
better the tv guys!! hahahahah
WHO ******* CARES
I like the microscopic & all the deep space photos they have. It blows my mind that living things can be so small & space so vast.
WOW This was so beautiful and cool. I love science.
Well, let's take a look at the perfect creation God made. Now a good engineer always puts in system backups. Therefore how come we only come with one heart, one brain, one sex organ, one spleen, one liver, one brain? Why do men have nipples? No backups thus God must have been a lousy engineer. Why not an extra brain. The one goes in the tank, well we do have a spare. Sorry I don't buy it. The only meaning to life, apart from what we give it, is to eat and reproduce. All of us are simply the result of chemistry.
Edward ... I praise God, too ... for without His divine gift of wings and the wondrous ability to soar in the heavens, my bacon would be cooked!
Originally God created a perfect world, but when man began to disobey the Creator ...?
"You and I are in little what God is in Large, with the exception of sin. Being made in His image we have within us the capacity to know him". The pursuit of God by Tozer
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever would believe in Him shall have everlasting life. John 3:16
Edward - Scientifically, you need to have empirical proof that God created the world. Then not to offend others, God would have to be generalized and not be the God of Abraham. For it was the God of Abraham, then the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths would be the only ones with an accurate creation myth.
It doesn't matter what you say Reed, it won't change his mind. People of faith are like that for a reason and outside of just venting your opinion anything you say will just be ignored. They have no desire to validate their beliefs and that's the crux of the problem. Spouting scientific facts to them only reinforces their belief system. I'm not sure there's anything at all that would break that sort of mind control outside of aliens coming to visit us. Even then though the Bible is vague enough that anything can be infered from it. Face it, there's no arguing with faith, just accept it and keep the discussion going forward about the topic at hand.
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