Small World Photos: Winners In Nikon's Photomicrography Contest Revealed

Small World Winning Photos (Nikon)

Nikon has announced the winning photos in its Small World Photomicrography Competition 2012 on Tuesday.

A photomicrograph which believed to show the first-ever image of the blood-brain barrier in a live animal won the top honors this year. 

Dr. Jennifer Peters and Dr. Michael Taylor of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital partnered to capture the image highlighting their research of the blood brain barrier.

"We used fluorescent proteins to look at brain endothelial cells and watched the blood-brain barrier develop in real-time," said Drs. Peters and Taylor. "We took a 3-dimensional snapshot under a confocal microscope.  Then, we stacked the images and compressed them into one – pseudo coloring them in rainbow to illustrate depth."

Nikon Small World is regarded as the leading forum for showcasing the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope.

"Year over year, we receive incredible images from all over the world for the Nikon Small World Competition, and it is our privilege to honor and showcase these talented researchers and photomicrographers," said Eric Flem, Communications Manager, Nikon Instruments. "We are proud that this competition is able to demonstrate the true power of scientific imaging and its relevance to both the scientific communities as well as the general public."

The top five photos this year come from a wide variety of artistic visual concepts and scientific disciplines who all share a common goal of outstanding photomicrographs that demonstrate superior technical competency and artistic skill. They are as follows:

1. Dr. Jennifer L. Peters and Dr. Michael R. Taylor, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; “The blood-brain barrier in a live zebrafish embryo”
2. Walter Piorkowski, “Live newborn lynx spiderlings”
3. Dr. Dylan Burnette, National Institutes of Health; “Human bone cancer (osteosarcoma) showing actin filaments (purple), mitochondria (yellow), and DNA (blue)”
4. Dr. W. Ryan Williamson, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI); “Drosophila melanogaster visual system halfway through pupal development, showing retina (gold), photoreceptor axons (blue), and brain (green)”
5. Honorio Cócera-La Parra, University of Valencia; “Cacoxenite (mineral) from La Paloma Mine, Spain”

Top images from the 2012 Nikon Small World Competition will be exhibited in a full-color calendar and through a national museum tour. Courtesy of Nikon