Thursday night, Nikon revealed the winning entries in its annual Small World contest, which recognizes excellence in photography through a microscope.
The Small World contest has been running since 1975 and it draws entries from all over the world. The idea is to submit images that showcases microscopy technologies and that are artistic. All told, scientists submitted over 1,700 photomicrographs for this year’s contest.
The event announcing the winning entries was a nice change from the norm – it was held in the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in Times Square, which is frequently used by vendors to introduce products and software. This event was very different. The theatre’s ballroom was lined with the top 20 winning entries as judged by a panel of distinguished scientists and art experts. (The wine and beer made it seem like the opening of an art gallery.)
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| Housefly, magnified 6.25 times | |
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The top award went to a 6.25 times magnification of a common housefly. It was sent in by Charles Krebs, a photographer based in Issaquah, Washington.
As one might expect, many of the award-winning images came from life scientists and showcased the wide variety of research conducted using the latest microscopy technologies. Among the top award winners were:
-- 2nd Place: A quantum dot fluorescence image of a mouse kidney section from Thomas Deerinck of the National Center for Microscopy & Imaging Research, University of California - San Diego.
-- 3rd Place: Crystallized vitamin A from Stefan Eberhard of the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center at the University of Georgia.
-- 4th Place: Crystallized succinic acid and urea from Edy Kieser of Ennenda, Switzerland.
-- 5th Place: Bacteria growth in a Petri dish from Neil Egan of PPG Industries in Cleveland, Ohio.
All of this year’s winning entries can be viewed online at Nikon’s Small World site. And if you want to see the winning photos in person, Nikon has an extensive road tour that starts January 1. On that tour, the winning images will be on display in numerous science museums and art museums around the country. A complete list of the tour locations and dates can be found here (NOTE: Look about halfway down the page to see the early 2006 schedule.).