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Pin-ItDr. Richard Ralph Kirby is a marine scientist by trade but his passion crosses over to his artistic side as well. This planktonic larva of a horseshoe worm captured in Darkfield microscopy shows the delicate beauty of these little-known sea creatures. The animal shown is somewhat “temporary” since once they have completed their feeding cycle by drifting through the water as plankton, they settle in to the sea bed where it lives as an adult horseshoe worm.
2020 Small World in Motion Competition
2nd Place
Planktonic larva of a marine horseshoe worm (Actinotrocha)
Dr. Richard Ralph Kirby
- Affiliation
- The Plankton Pundit
Plymouth, United Kingdom
- Technique
- Darkfield
- Magnification
- 1.0X and 2.3X (Objective Lens Magnification)
1st Place
Internal flow dynamics of coalescing micro-droplets (~200x slower speed)
Kazi Fazle Rabbi Dr. Xiao Yan
- Affiliation
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering
Urbana, Illinois, USA
- Technique
Transmitted Light
- Magnification
- 20 (Objective Lens Magnification)
This video was captured by research assistant and Ph.D. candidate Kazi Fazle Rabbi as part of his research into condensation and evaporation on a microscopic scale. The video was difficult to capture and was accomplished using transmitted light microscopy, with a frequency controlled micro-droplet dispenser and a high-speed camera interfaced with a microscope lens objective.
Such research helps to visualize condensation and evaporation on various surfaces and can lead to advancements in everyday items such as more efficient air condition systems, water pipes that don’t freeze or even optical glass that won’t fog up from wearing a facemask.
3rd Place
A blackworm (Lumbriculus variegatus) displaying peristaltic movements
Martin Kaae Kristiansen
- Affiliation
- My Microscopic World
Aalborg, Nordjylland, Denmark
- Technique
- Polarized Light
- Magnification
- 4X (Objective Lens Magnification)
This video of a blackworm, found in a pond water sample shows peristaltic (wavelike muscular contraction) movement inside the worm. Using a combination of optical staining and polarized light, it allowed Martin Kaae Kristiansen the ability to not only see inside the creature, but to observe and record its movements without hurting it. He finds this type of study important because it allows people to learn more about these tiny subjects and helps refine the lighting and staining techniques used in this and many other types of research.
Top 20
Honorable Mentions
Judges
Dr. Dylan Burnette
Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology Vanderbilt University
Burnette has been using high resolution microscopy to study cells for over 20 years. His laboratory at Vanderbilt University focuses on how cells grow and divide. He is interested in how these processes contribute to the function of heart muscle. He trained as a graduate student with Dr. Paul Forscher at Yale University and as a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Burnette has placed in the Nikon Small World competition eleven times.
Samantha Clark
Photo Editor National Geographic
Clark works on stories about science and the environment. She previously worked on NPR’s photo team and at Pier 24 Photography. Before working in visuals, she was a reporter and radio producer based in the Bay Area of San Francisco.
Sean Greene
Graphics and Data Journalist The Los Angeles Times
Greene covers science, the environment and medicine. He started working for The Los Angeles Times in 2014 and specializes in combining the powers of visual storytelling and the internet to tell meaningful and memorable stories. He’s reported on native oysters, bugs and frog tongues, and helped develop projects such as an interactive map of the Milky Way, a tracker of coronavirus cases in California and a data analysis of the dialogue in the Star Wars movies.
Dr. Christophe Leterrier
Group Leader Institute of Neurophysiopathology at CNRS and Aix-Marseille University
An engineer by training, Dr. Leterrier turned to cell biology and neurobiology for his Ph.D. He studies how neurons are organized at the cellular level and how they differentiate, then build and maintain their incredibly complex arborization. Since 2017, he has led the NeuroCyto lab in Marseille where he applies advanced microscopy techniques to directly observe molecular assemblies at the nanoscale inside neurons.
Ariel Waldman
Chair of the External Council NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Program
Waldman led an expedition to Antarctica to film microscopic life under the ice. She is the co-author of a National Academy of Sciences report on the future of human spaceflight and the author of the book What’s It Like in Space?: Stories from Astronauts Who’ve Been There. Waldman is the global director of Science Hack Day, a National Geographic Explorer, a member of the San Francisco Microscopical Society, and received an honoree from the Obama White House as a Champion of Change in citizen science.
