Life As You've Never Seen It: 2010's Best Microscope Photos
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Nikon International Small World Competition began in 1974 as a means to recognize and applaud the efforts of those involved with photography through the light microscope. Since then, Small World has become a leading showcase for photomicrographers from the widest array of scientific disciplines. A photomicrograph is not only a technical document that has potentially great scientific purpose but also a work of art -- an image whose structure, color, composition, and content is an object of beauty. Here are the top 10. <a href="http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/gallery/year/2010/">But Nikon Small World</a> has the complete list of winners.
A closeup of China's most famous seasoning: soy sauce. <b>10th Place<br> Yanping Wang<br></b>Beijing Language and Culture University<br> Beijing, China<br> Crystallized soy sauce (16X)<br> Reflected and Transmitted Light (Nikon Small World)
The dread of animal lovers, fleas are small, agile, usually dark colored, wingless insects with tube-like mouth-parts for feeding on the blood of their hosts. A flea can jump vertically up to 7 inches and horizontally up to 13 inches (around 200 times their own body length), making the flea one of the best jumpers of all known animals. <b>9th Place<br> Dr. Duane Harland<br></b>AgResearch Ltd.<br> Lincoln, New Zealand<br> Ctenocephalides canis (flea) (20X)<br> Fluorescence (Nikon Small World)
Cacoxenite is a mineral commonly found in magnetic and limonite iron ores. The name comes from the Greek words for "bad" and "guest," because the phosphorous content of Cacoxenite lessens the quality of iron smelted from ore containing it. <b>8th Place<br> Honorio Cocera-La Parra<br></b>Geology Museum, University of Valencia<br> Benetusser, Valencia, Spain<br> Cacoxenite (mineral) (18X)<br> Reflected light (Nikon Small World)
Endothelial cells line the entire circulatory system, from the heart to the smallest capillary. These cells reduce turbulence in the flow of blood, allowing the fluid to be pumped farther. <b>7th Place<br> Yongli Shan<br></b>The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center<br> Dallas, Texas, USA<br> Endothelial cell attached to synthetic microfibers, stained with microtubules, F-actin and nuclei (2,500X)<br> Fluorescence, Confocal (Nikon Small World)
Red seaweeds have had a more diverse evolution than the green and the brown. The red color comes from larger amounts of red pigments overriding the green pigment chlorophyll, which lets the seaweed survive in low-light conditions where green seaweeds could not. <b>6th Place<br> Dr. John Huisman<br></b>Murdoch University, School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology<br> Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia<br> Martensia sp. (red seaweed), living specimen (40X)<br> Brightfield (Nikon Small World)
Bird of Paradise flowers are associated with liberty, magnificence, and good perspective. First introduced to Europe in 1773 when they were grown at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, they are a common ornamental plant in Southern California and the official flower of Los Angeles. <b>5th Place<br> Viktor Sykora<br></b>Institute of Pathophysiology, First Medical Faculty, Charles University<br> Prague, Czech Republic<br> Strelitzia reginae (bird of paradise) seed (10X)<br> Darkfield (Nikon Small World)
A closeup of the paper pulp nests that many social wasps produce. Unlike honey bees, wasps have no wax producing glands. Many produce a paper-like substance primarily from wood pulp. Wood fibers are gathered locally from weathered wood, softened by chewing and mixing with saliva. The pulp is then used to make combs with cells for rearing other wasps. <b>4th Place<br> Riccardo Taiariol<br></b>La Spezia, SP, Italy<br> Wasp nest (10X)<br> Extended Depth of Field Stereomicroscopy (Nikon Small World)
The olfactory bulb is a structure of the vertebrate forebrain involved in the perception of odors. <b>3rd Place<br> Oliver Braubach</b> Department of Physiology & Biophysics, Dalhousie University<br> Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada<br> Zebrafish olfactory bulbs (250X)<br> Confocal (Nikon Small World)
It's not surprising the zebrafish has shown up twice in the top ten. It's a common and useful model organism for studies of vertebrate development and gene function in scientific research. <b>2nd Place<br> Dr. Hideo Otsuna<br></b>University of Utah Medical Center, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy<br> Salt Lake City, Utah, USA<br> 5-day old zebrafish head (20X)<br> Confocal (Nikon Small World)
It's the number one deadliest animal on the planet going by kills per year, transmitting disease to more than 700 million people annually. Judges were stunned to see this level of geometry in nature, describing the structures seen here in the mosquitoes heart as shockingly repetitive. Does that look like a heart to you? <b>1st Place<br> Jonas King<br></b>Vanderbilt University, Department of Biological Sciences<br> Nashville, Tennessee, USA<br> Anopheles gambiae (mosquito) heart (100X)<br> Fluorescence (Nikon Small World)