Slideshow: Inner space

Every year Nikon challenges the world's microscopists to open the door into the small and smaller through the Small World competition.

“Year over year, we receive incredible images from all over the world for the Nikon Small World Competition, and it is our privilege to honour and showcase these talented researchers and photomicrographers,” said Eric Flem, Communications Manager, Nikon Instruments.

“We are proud that this competition is able to demonstrate the true power of scientific imaging and its relevance to both the scientific communities as well as the general public.”

First place winners Peters and Taylor partnered to capture the image highlighting their research of the blood brain barrier. “We used fluorescent proteins to look at brain endothelial cells and watched the blood-brain barrier develop in real-time,” said Drs. Peters and Taylor.

“We took a 3-dimensional snapshot under a confocal microscope. Then, we stacked the images and compressed them into one – pseudo colouring them in rainbow to illustrate depth.”

The top five images this year come from a wide variety of artistic visual concepts and scientific disciplines who all share a common goal of outstanding photomicrographs that demonstrate superior technical competency and artistic skill.