MELVILLE, N.Y., Oct. 30, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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:
- Mr. Wim van Egmond, Micropolitan Museum, Chaetoceros debilis (marine diatom), a colonial plankton organism
- Dr. Joseph Corbo, Washington University School of Medicine, Chrysemys picta (painted turtle) retina
- Dr. Alvaro Esteves Migotto, Universidade de São Paulo, Centro de Biologia Marinha, Marine worm
- Mr. Rogelio Moreno Gill, Paramecium sp. showing the nucleus, mouth and water expulsion vacuoles
- 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.
About Nikon Instruments Inc.
Nikon Instruments, Inc. is a world leader in the development and manufacture of optical and digital imaging technology for biomedical applications. Now in its 96th year, Nikon provides complete optical systems that offer optimal versatility, performance and productivity. Cutting-edge instruments include microscopes, precision measuring equipment, digital imaging products and software. Nikon Instruments is the microscopy and instrumentation arm of Nikon Inc., the world leader in digital imaging, precision optics and photo imaging technology. For more information, visit www.nikoninstruments.com. Product-related inquiries may be directed to Nikon Instruments at 800-52-NIKON.