The Winners Of The 2022 Nikon Small World Microscopic Photography Contest Have Been Announced. A Detailed Photo Of Jeko’s Fetal Hand Won The Top Prize.

The Nikon Global Competition is an excellent opportunity to share the impact of nature at the microscopic level, not only with the scientific community but with the general public. In 2022 and its 48th year, the Nikon Microscopic Photography Contest received more than 1,300 entries from 72 countries.

Modern microscopes are highly specialized camera systems with high magnification power, So it’s no surprise that some of the images scientists take as they work are stunning works of art in their own right. The contest invites photographers and scientists to submit photos of anything that can be seen under a microscope.

At this year’s event, Gregory Timin and Dr. Michele Milinkovich won the annual Microscopic Photography Contest by capturing the image of the front paw of a growing giant gecko.

As part of his research under Milinkovic, Timin studied this gecko embryo (Phelsuma grandis day gecko) under a microscope. He used different fluorescent labels to color distinct parts of the lizard’s hand; The result is a glimpse into the hidden complexity of this creature.

Thymine showed lizard nerves in turquoise, bones, tendons, ligaments, skin, and blood cells in a range of warmer colors.

Timin says:

This embryonic hand is about 3 mm long, a large specimen for high-resolution microscopy. The scan consists of 300 tiles containing about 250 optical sectors, resulting in more than two days of acquisition and approximately 200 gigabytes of data.

This image is beautiful and informative in an overview and when you zoom in on a specific area.

First place

• Gregory Timin and Dr. Michelle Milinkovich

Embryo hand of Madagascar giant gecko

second place

• Dr. Caleb Dawson

Breast tissue shows contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk-producing alveoli.

third place

• Sato Paavonsalo and Dr. Sinem Karaman

Network of blood vessels in the intestine of adult mice

You can see the work of other winners below:

• First Bielefeld

Unburnt carbon particles are released when the hydrocarbon chain of the candle wax is broken.

• Ye Fei Zhang

willow egg

• Murat Ozturk

Take the fly in the cockroach’s bite

• Wim van Egmond

Anemone larvae in marine plankton

• Allison Pollock

Slime mold (Lamproderma)

• Yusuf al-Habashi

Red-spotted jewel beetle

• Zhenbei Zheng

Alaska sand grains

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We hope you enjoyed watching this episode of Shutter. Visit the Nikon website to see more works. What do you think of this year’s Nikon Small World Contest winners? Which picture did you like the most?