Art and Science Come Together in Nikon Time-Lapse Competition

A time-lapse movie showing the immune response in the lymph nodes of a mouse edged out a fruit fly sperm fight for top honors at this year's Nikon "Small World in Motion Photomicrography" competition. In it's second year, the competition showcases 2012's best time-lapse imagery as seen through through a microscope.

Published

4 months ago

Categories

Science, Arts & Society

Topics

Arts & Culture, Science

Companies

Nikon Corporation

Transcript

It looks more like art than science... and according to the judging panel of the Nikon "Small World in Photomicrography Competition" it's actually both. The time-lapse movie shot by NIH scientist Olena Kamenyeva of the immune response in lymph nodes of a mouse took top prize. The Nikon International Small World Competition began in 1975 to recognize the efforts of those involved with photography as seen through a microscope and in 2011, following a trend in time-lapse imagery and video, the competition began accepting movies. Second place honours went to Dr. Stefan Lüpold with a movie showing sperm from two different males competing within the female reproductive tract of the fruit fly. The development of genetically-modified fruit flies that produce sperm with either green- or red-fluorescent heads, as seen in the movie, is now allowing scientists to study the process. Dr. Nils Lindstrom earned third place honours with his video showing a kidney cultured in vitro and imaged over four days. Dr. Lindstrom says the time-lapse video represents a striking example of how a kidney starts from a simple structure and gradually becomes a highly complex duct system in just a matter of days. Entries in the competition are judged on the basis of originality, informational content, technical proficiency and most importantly - visual impact. Nikon says microscopic imaging technology improves every year and with those improvements scientists will be able to show that art and science have a lot more in common than anyone expected.