From slime mold resembling a cute mushroom to an unprecedented look at the embryonic hand of a gecko, this year’s winners of the Nikon Small World photo contest reveal the stunning sights of a hidden microscopic universe.
Running for nearly half a century, the Nikon Small World contest celebrates all kinds of light microscopy techniques. Entries sit at the intersection of art and science, with the winners judged on a balance of technical skill, aesthetic impact and originality.
![1st Place. Embryonic hand of a Madagascar giant day gecko (Phelsuma grandis). 63X (Objective Lens Magnification)](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/e3e2eab/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1586x1080+0+0/resize/1410x960!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F3a%2F7b%2Fd7d039144723afaba6dcf9c66709%2F1-phg-embryonic-hand-nikon.jpg)
This year’s top prize went to a first-of-its-kind image from Grigorii Timin, at the University of Geneva. Using whole-mount fluorescent staining and a confocal microscope Timin painstakingly striated together hundreds of separate images to build the image of a whole embryonic hand from a Madagascar giant day gecko.
"This embryonic hand is about 3 mm (0.12 in) in length, which is a huge sample for high-resolution microscopy,” Timin explained. “The scan consists of 300 tiles, each containing about 250 optical sections, resulting in more than two days of acquisition and approximately 200 GB of data.”
![2nd Place. Breast tissue showing contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk-producing alveoli. 40X (Objective Lens Magnification)](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/62581bd/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1832x1080+0+0/resize/1440x849!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F7f%2F94%2Fe27e9d284dfc9678c756c0e2e245%2F2-dawson-breast-alveoli-in-lactation.jpg)
Second place went to an equally incredible image from Australian scientist Caleb Dawson. The image is a stunning depiction of lactating breast tissue, showing milk-producing sacs (alveoli).
![Nikon Small World. Honorable Mention. Slime mold (Didymium clavus). 10X (Objective Lens Magnification)](https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/f8a5db4/2147483647/strip/true/crop/971x1080+0+0/resize/863x960!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fd9%2Fae%2F0d859991485ab754e1bb9ea68c86%2Falisonpollack.Didymium_clavus.jpg)
Other surreal highlights in this year’s impressive collection include a moody portrait of a wasp stinger, a close-up look at sand particles, and of course, the obligatory zoom in on a spider for the arachnophobes.
Take a look through our gallery at more highlights from the contest.
Source: Nikon Small World