A glowing, eerily beautiful image of a water flea with its radiant green “crown of thorns” took top prize in the 2009 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition, the world’s foremost forum for showcasing microscope photos and movies of life science subjects. Dr. Jan Michels, a zoologist at the University of Albrecht, Kiel, Germany, took top honors for the image of a water flea, with its defensive “crown of thorns” to protect it against predators. The image reveals not only the exoskeleton, but also interior detail down to the nuclei within its cells, seen as tiny, glowing blue dots. This stunning and unusual depiction of a whole organism detailing both external and intracellular structures was selected from more than 2000 images and movies - a competition record - to earn First Prize, $5,000 worth of Olympus equipment.
Now in its sixth year, the Olympus BioScapes competition is the world’s premier platform for honoring images and movies of human, plant and animal subjects as captured through light microscopes. Any life science subject is eligible, and entries are judged based on the science they depict, their aesthetics (beauty and impact of the image), and their technical merit. This year, in addition to Prizes 1-10, 65 other images and movies were recognized with Honorable Mentions.
Water flea Daphnia atkinsoni. This specimen has a "crown of thorns," a defensive trait induced in offspring only when the parents sense chemical cues released by one of their main predators, the tadpole shrimp Triops cancriformis. The water flea´s exoskeleton (exterior structure, green) and subcellular details within the organism (nuclei - tiny blue dots) are both visible. Dr. Jan Michels, Department of Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, Institute of Zoology, Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, Germany. First Prize, 2009 Olympus BioScapes. Digital Imaging Competition.
All images and the names of all honorees may be viewed online at the Olympus BioScape website.
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Specimen: Daphnia atkinsoni (Water Flea); Technique: Confocal laser scanning microscopy. Credit: Dr. Jan Michels, Christian-Albrechts-University, Institute of Zoology, Kiel, Germany
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This year’s winning images reflect the latest advances in neuroscience and cell biology, including the Second Prize image by Chung-Ju Rachel Wang of the University of California, Berkeley. Her image of the nucleus of a corn plant cell shows a ladder-like protein structure called the synaptonemal complex, which forms between chromosomes during one type of cell division.
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Specimen: Synaptonemal complex; Technique: 3D-Structured Illumination. Credit: Dr. Chung-Ju Rachel Wang, University of California Berkeley, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Berkeley, Calif.
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According to Wang, this may be among the first high-resolution 3D images of this complex ever captured with a light microscope. The two parallel axes look like tangled, colorful threads as they twist around each other.
Read more about the top winners here
