Nikon Small World hands awards first place to photogenic gecko image
16 Oct 2022
The three millimetre hand of a lizard embryo captured on camera in incredible detail has won first place out of 1,300 entries to this year’s Nikon Small World photo competition.
Grigorii Timin’s study (see picture top left) of Phelsuma grandis, the Giant Day Gecko, employed high-resolution microscopy, painstaking image-stitching combined with whole-mount fluorescent staining and tissue clearing.
Nerves were highlighted in a cyan colour, with other colours used to reveal bones, tendons, ligaments, skin and blood cells. Although just 3 mm (0.12 in) long, the hand represented a huge sample for high-resolution microscopy, explain 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,” said the winner, who was supervised by Dr. Michel Milinkovitch at the University of Geneva.
Now in its 48th year the Nikon award was founded in 1974 to celebrate work that combined technical proficiency with scientific information, visual impact and originality.
Said Eric Flem, Communications and CRM Manager, Nikon Instruments: “At the intersection of art and science, this year’s competition highlights stunning imagery from scientists, artists, and photomicrographers of all experience levels and backgrounds from across the globe.”
Second place was awarded to Dr. Caleb Dawson for his image (middle row, second right) of breast tissue showing contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk-producing alveoli. In third place was captured by Satu Paavonsalo and Dr. Sinem Karaman’s image (bottom row, second right) of blood vessel networks in the intestine of an adult mouse.
A further 89 photos out of thousands of entries from scientists and artists from more than 70 countries were also recognised.
Panel judges included Dr. Gustavo Menezes, Associate Professor and Head of the Center for Gastrointestinal Biology at the Federal University of Minas Gerai; Dr. Nikolay Nikolov, senior video journalist at The New York Times; Washington Post Photo Editor Annaliese Nurnberg; and cell biologist and member of the US National Academy of Sciences Dr. Clare Waterman.
To view more examples of the winning entries click here.
NEWS: The science broadcaster and lecturer Professor Brian J Ford, who received an honourable mention in this year’s Nikon Small World Awards, presents a photo feature with accompanying video link depicting another of his photomicrographic projects, illustrating the presence of viruses on human hair, in the forthcoming issue of Laboratory News.
