Big Booger
September 23rd, 2006, 15:32 PM
Yesterday, Nikon revealed the winners of the 32nd annual Small World photography contest. Thousands of academics, private-sector scientists, and armchair microscopists from dozens of countries sent in pictures taken through microscopes, and the top 20 shown here came from Scotland, Mexico, Germany, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Australia, England, and the ol' U.S. of A. Judges from previous years said this year's crop was particularly strong, in part because there are more entrants and in part because techniques are improving.
Discover editors at the event last night were definitely impressed by the field, but they respectfully disagreed with the official judges on the placement of some of the top 20. The judges, being microscopy experts themselves, were particularly impressed with some photos that they knew to be technically challenging; the winning photo, for instance, uses a difficult method called two-photon microscopy, in which the subject absorbs two laser photons at almost exactly the same time (within femtoseconds) and then emits one photon at half the wavelength. We think readers will also see that the judged winners do not coincide exactly with the most visually stunning pictures. Our unofficial poll pegged numbers six, nine, and 11 as the most amazing.
View the awesome images...
http://discover.com/web-exclusives/small-world/
The picture of the shrimp's square pupil was very unique. Reminded me of the "ball" from pong. :D
Discover editors at the event last night were definitely impressed by the field, but they respectfully disagreed with the official judges on the placement of some of the top 20. The judges, being microscopy experts themselves, were particularly impressed with some photos that they knew to be technically challenging; the winning photo, for instance, uses a difficult method called two-photon microscopy, in which the subject absorbs two laser photons at almost exactly the same time (within femtoseconds) and then emits one photon at half the wavelength. We think readers will also see that the judged winners do not coincide exactly with the most visually stunning pictures. Our unofficial poll pegged numbers six, nine, and 11 as the most amazing.
View the awesome images...
http://discover.com/web-exclusives/small-world/
The picture of the shrimp's square pupil was very unique. Reminded me of the "ball" from pong. :D