• Microscopic laser battle wins top honors in Nikon Small World contest

    Olena Kamenyeva's Nikon Small World video shows a lymph node's immune response.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News


    A laser attack on a lymph node provides the drama behind the top-rated video in Nikon's 2012 Small World in Motion competition, which celebrates time-lapse movies made on a microscopic scale.

    The filmmaker behind the winning video, titled "Sensing Danger," is Olena Kamenyeva, a researcher at the National Institute of Heallth's NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation. Kamenyeva's experiment involved shooting a laser beam at a lymph node taken from a mouse's groin. The color-coded time-lapse view shows how white blood cells responded to the damage.

    Kamenyeva said the movie "shows an efficient innate immune reaction in the lymph node, which typically has been studied for the development of adaptive immune response." The action was captured using a two-photon microscope, equipped with an L25.0 x 0.95 water immersion objective.

    In this week's announcement of the winners, Nikon Instruments said the movie won first place because it demonstrated the delicate balance between science and art. "Dr. Kamenyeva's image is the perfect combination of cutting-edge science with aesthetics that we look for in Small World, to help raise the profile of science with scientists and non-scientists alike," said Eric Flem, communications manager for Nikon Instruments.

    Nikon has been running its Small World contest for photomicrography since 1975, but this is only the second go-round for the "Small World in Motion" video competition. That just shows how quickly time-lapse photography has taken hold in scientific microscopy.

    Sperm from two males compete within reproductive tract of a female fruit fly.

    Second-place honors went to Stefan Lüpold, a biologist at Syracuse University, for a movie showing sperm from two different male fruit flies competing within the reproductive tract of a female fly. In the 400x time-lapse video, the sperm cells look like red and green worms scurrying through a complex network of tunnels.

    "Competition between sperm is a widespread phenomenon throughout the animal kingdom and a powerful evolutionary force driving species diversity," Lüpold said in his contest entry. "However, it has been nearly impossible to study the fundamental biological processes associated with such sperm competition, occurring whenever sperm from different males mix inside of females. The very recent development of genetically modified fruit flies that produce sperm with either green- or red-fluorescent heads (as seen in the movie) is now allowing us to answer important biological questions."

    Nils Lindström's video shows the development of a kidney.

    Third place went to Nils Lindström of the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute for a short subject titled "Growing Complexity in the Kidney." The time-lapse video packs four days' worth of kidney cell growth, as seen through fluorescence imaging, into 21 seconds.

    Nikon said the video provides a "striking example of how a kidney starts from a simple structure and gradually becomes a highly complex collecting duct system in a matter of days."

    The top three winners will receive Nikon equipment worth a total of $3,500. (That's $2,000 for first, $1,000 for second and $500 for third prize.) An additional 10 entries were cited for honorable mentions. To see the full array of 13 videos, check out the Nikon Small World in Motion website or the YouTube gallery.

    More small wonders:

    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.

  • Creepy critters and cool close-ups: Nikon's micro-photo contest has it all

    Slideshow: Nikon Small World 2012

    Geir Drange

    Get an up-close view of an ant carrying its baby, plus other top-20 winners in the 2012 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition.

    Launch slideshow

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News


    Small wonders can be icky as well as clicky, as this year's top images in the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition demonstrate. First-ever picture of the blood-brain barrier forming in a live animal? Got it. Ultra-close-ups of a desert rose and a baby garlic flower? Got 'em. Creepy pictures of bat embryos and eight-eyed spiders? Got those, too.

    Ninety-nine winners were chosen out of hundreds of photographers from around the world who participated in the Small World contest, which has been presented by Nikon since 1975 to recognize excellence in photomicrography. We're featuring the top 20 images in our slideshow.

    Top honors go to Jennifer Peters and Michael Taylor of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., who captured what's thought to be an unprecedented picture of the blood-brain barrier in a live zebrafish embryo.

    The barrier is a structure of cells that let nutrients and other necessities move between blood vessels and the central nervous system, while keeping bacteria and other baddies out of the brain's territory.

    "We used fluorescent proteins to look at brain endothelial cells and watched the blood-brain barrier develop in real time," Peters and Taylor said, in a statement explaining the genesis of their winning image. "We took a three-dimensional snapshot under a confocal microscope. Then we stacked the images and compressed them into one — pseudo-coloring them in rainbow to illustrate depth."

    The result is a matrix that appears to shine in the darkness like the craziest neon sculpture you've ever seen. Other winning pictures present views of a ladybug's leg, a fruit fly's gut or a bone cancer cell in similarly glowing colors.

    And then there are the curiously creepy pictures: a series of three bat embryos, showing how the critters' flesh-colored wings grow longer during gestation ... an ant gripping one of its larvae in its jaws ... newborn lynx spiderlings that turn their eight eyes toward the microscope's lens.

    In some cases, the photomicrographs were created in the course of a research project — but in other cases, the pictures are primarily meant to convey the wonder of small worlds. For example, photographer Charles Krebs was led to create his 17th-place image when he was stung by nettles. "After the numbness in my fingertips subsided, I carefully collected some, and took a look at the underside of a leaf," he wrote on Photomacrography.net. His 100x image shows a nettle's stinging hair, or trichome, filled with venom.

    Eric Flem, communications manager for Nikon Instruments, said it was a privilege to showcase some of the world's best photomicrography. "We are proud that this competition is able to demonstrate the true power of scientific imaging and its relevance to the scientific communities as well as the general public," he said in today's news release. A total of $6,000 worth of Nikon products and equipment will go to the three top prize winnres.

    Click through the top-20 slideshow, then check out the Nikon Small World website for scores of additional images of distinction. You can see the contest's top images offline as well, in the form of Nikon's full-color calendar and a touring museum exhibition. And you'll find a huge stockpile of small wonders in the slideshows listed below:

    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.

  • Little bug leads to big prize

    Igor Siwanowicz via Nikon Small World

    A green lacewing larva gets its close-up in this photo by Igor Siwanowicz, first-place winner in the 2011 Nikon Small World contest. Click on the image to see this year's top 20 pictures.

    By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

    It's a good thing that Igor Siwanowicz didn't smash the bug that bit him. A photomicrograph of that pesky lacewing larva has won first place in this year's edition of the prestigious Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition.

    Siwanowicz, a biochemist and photographer who lives in Madison, Wis., said the story of his prize-winning picture began when the bug started "fiercely digging its mandibles" into his skin. Instead of swatting the bug away, he pulled out the test tube that he always carries in his pocket for occasions like this, slipped the insect inside and fired up the microscope.

    As described in a Nikon news release, Siwanowicz had only one chance to capture the image he had in mind, due to the specific requirements for the bug's dissection. He carefully fixed and dyed the sample, then set up his confocal microscope for 20x magnification. The resulting picture reveals the lacewing's 1.3-millimeter-long head, and those fierce mandibles, in startling detail.

    Siwanowicz, who completed his doctoral studies in protein crystallography but now works in invertebrate photography for research, sees his work not just as a technical aspect of a science project, but as a true artform.

    "My art causes a dissonance for its viewer — a conflict between the culturally imprinted perception of an insect as something repulsive and ugly, with a newly acquired admiration of the beauty of its form," he told Nikon. "My hope is that in some way, my photomicrographs prompt people to realize the presence of culturaly programming, question it, and eventually throw it off as an illusion. I am so pleased to be recognized by Nikon Small World for this philosophy, but also for the technical expertise it required to capture this photo."

    Dissonance between the macro and micro worlds is a theme in this year's crop of top Small World photos, which I had a hand in selecting as a member of the judging panel. A blade of grass turns into a forest of color. The surface of a microchip glows like a gaudy neon sign. A tiny sprig of liverwort becomes a chain of scaly alien hands. Cracked solar-cell film takes on the beauty of a black-and-white abstract painting.

    To get the bigger picture, check out our slideshow of the contest's top 20 images, then go on to the Small World website to see the honorable mentions, this year's "Images of Distinction" and still more distinctive images from past competitions. You'll also enjoy Siwanowicz's voluminous gallery on DeviantART.

    This year's 37th annual Small World contest drew hundreds of entries from almost 70 countries around the world. Siwanowicz receives $3,000 worth of Nikon gear for his first-place photograph — with gift certificates of lesser amounts, ranging from $2,000 to $100, going to the others on the top-20 list. Eric Flem, communications manager for Nikon Instruments, said it was "our privilege to honor the talented researchers and photomicrographers who submit their amazing work."

    "As evidenced by Dr. Siwanowicz ... marrying technique and aesthetics is no easy feat," he said. "We are proud that this competition is able to showcase this beautiful imagery and demonstrate some of the many facets of science."

    More glimpses of microscopic worlds:

    Top images from the 2011 Nikon Small World competition will be exhibited in a full-color calendar and through a national museum tour. For additional information, visit the Small World website or follow the conversation on Facebook and Twitter @NikonSmallWorld. 

    My colleagues on the judging panel for this year's contest included USA Today science columnist Dan Vergano; Simon Watkins, founder and director of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Biological Imaging, as well as a professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School; and Richard Day, physiology professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

    Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also add me to your Google+ circle, and check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.