For five decades now, iconic camera manufacturer Nikon has been presenting the wonders of the tiny world invisible to the human eye in its annual microscope photography competition. This year's entries not only have aesthetic value, but are also important from a scientific point of view.

The Nikon Small World contest takes you into the world of very small things. Recurring themes include extreme close-ups of human, plant, animal and insect cells and frozen moments of physical processes.

This year's first prize was awarded to a recording showing differentiated mouse brain tumor cells, highlighting components such as one of the cell's most important structural systems, the actin cytoskeleton, as well as microtubules and the nucleus. It also shows how disruption of these components can lead to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Nikon's Small World / Bruno Cisterna

Did the creator of the photo, Bruno Cisterna, say how difficult it is to take such a shot? “I spent about three months perfecting the staining process to ensure that the cells were clearly visible. After allowing the cells to differentiate for five days, I had to find the right field of view where the differentiated and undifferentiated cells interacted. This meant about three hours of careful observation with a microscope in order to Capturing the right moment.”

An impressive recording also took second place. Marcel Clemens's photo captures an electric arc between a needle and a wire, produced by applying a potential difference of 10,000 volts.

Nikon's Small World / Dr. Marcel Clemens

Third place went to Chris Romijn for his photo of a cannabis leaf. The swollen structures are trichomes, or hair-like plant growths, and the bubbles inside are vesicles, which are vesicle-like structures filled with fluid.

Nikon's Small World / Chris Romijn

A total of 87 images were entered into this year's competition from around the world. The shots are breathtaking On this page You can watch it.

If you want to know about similar things at other times, like it Facebook page of the HVG Tech department, which also reports on scientific discoveries.



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