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Nikon Small World Microscopy Competition 2022: Meet this year’s top 10 winners

    This fascinating hand image of an embryonic Madagascar giant day gecko took first place in the annual competition.
    enlarge / This fascinating hand image of an embryonic Madagascar giant day gecko took first place in the annual competition.

    The Madagascar giant day gecko (Phelsuma grandis) is a popular exotic pet, perhaps because it somewhat resembles Geico’s beloved animated gecko mascot. Adults are about 10 inches long and are known for their bright green body color complemented by a red stripe running from the nostril to the eye. They can lick their eyeballs (a way to keep them clean as the creatures don’t have eyelids). And, of course, they wear those familiar adhesive pads on their feet and hands — ideal for clinging to smooth vertical surfaces — that physicists find so fascinating.

    Now we have a unique perspective on the gecko’s most famous appendage: a striking photomicroscopy image of an embryonic hand of Phelsuma grandis, courtesy of a Swiss graduate student, Grigorii Timin, at the University of Geneva and his advisor, Michael Milinkovitch. It is the winning image in the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition 2022, designed to highlight “beautiful images from scientists, artists and micrographers of all experiences and backgrounds from around the world,” said Nikon communications manager Eric Flem.

    The first step in creating the winning image was to prepare the sample using fluorescent staining of the tissue with full mounting. And an embryonic gecko hand is actually quite a large sample (about 3 mm or 0.12 inches long) when it comes to high-resolution microscopy. So Timin painstakingly stitched together hundreds of images – 300 tiles, each containing some 250 optical sections – using image stitching to create the final result. Those cyan-colored sections highlight the nerves in the embryonic hand, while other colors highlight bones, tendons, ligaments, skin, and blood cells.

    Here are the remaining top 10 winners from this year’s contest. You can see the full list of winners and several honorable mentions here – 89 in all, selected from thousands of entries around the world.

    Caleb Dawson of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia:
    enlarge / Caleb Dawson of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia: “Breast tissue with contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk-producing alveoli.”

    Caleb Dawson

    Satu Paavonsalo and Sinem Karaman, University of Helsinki, Finland:
    enlarge / Satu Paavonsalo and Sinem Karaman, University of Helsinki, Finland: “Blood Vessel Networks in the Intestine of an Adult Mouse.”

    Satu Paavonsalo & Sinem Karaman

    Andrew Posselt, University of California, San Francisco:
    enlarge / Andrew Posselt, University of California, San Francisco: “Long-bodied cellar/daddy leggy spider (Pholcus phaangioides)”

    Andrew Posselt

    Alison Pollack, San Anselmo, California: Slime mold (<em>lamproderma</em>) ” src=”https://cdn.CBNewz.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/nikon5-640×800.jpg” width=”640″ height=”800″ /><figcaption class=
    enlarge / Alison Pollack, San Anselmo, California: Slime mold (Lamproderma)

    Alison Pollack

    Ole Bielfeldt, Macrofying Cologne, Germany:
    enlarge / Ole Bielfeldt, Macrofying Cologne, Germany: “Unburned Carbon Particles Are Released When The Hydrocarbon Chain Of Candle Wax Breaks Down.”

    Ole Bielfeldt

    Jianqun Gao and Glenda Halliday, University of Sydney, Australia:
    enlarge / Jianqun Gao and Glenda Halliday, University of Sydney, Australia: “Human Neurons Derived from Neural Stem Cells.”

    Jianqun Gao & Glenda Halliday

    Nathanael Prunet, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:
    enlarge / Nathanaël Prunet, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: “Growing tip of a red alga.”

    Nathanael Prunet

    Marek Sutkowski, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland:
    enlarge / Marek Sutkowski, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland: “Liquid Crystal Mixture (smectic Felix 015).”

    Marek Sutkowski

    Murat Özturk, Ankara, Turkey:
    enlarge / Murat Öztürk, Ankara, Turkey: “A fly under the chin of a tiger beetle.”

    Murat Özturk