A stunning image of a rat fetus with bright red eyes and iridescent tissue has been named the winner of a prestigious science photography award.
Scientist Werner Zuschratter captured the embryo on its 21st day of development using a microscope that shoots images through a tiny hole to highlight contrasts and increase clarity.
Along with Zuschratter’s winning masterpiece, the judges chose a photo that shows intricate details of snake skin pigment cells and a collage of more than 40 colored butterfly wings as regional finalists.
The competition, organized by Olympus’ Life Sciences division, is the second global image of the year of light science from life science light microscopy, which focuses on living organisms. seen through any type of microscope.
A rat fetus with red, diabolical eyes and bright tissue has been named the winner of the second life science light microscopy in the global image of the year. Scientist Werner Zuschratter captured the embryo on its 21st day of development using a microscope that shoots images through a tiny pinhole to highlight contrasts and increase clarity.
The world competition received nearly 700 nominations from 61 different counties.
As Satoshi Nakamura, vice president of scientific marketing solutions at Olympus, points out: “Not only did we see a record number of submissions, but the quality and creativity of these images were exceptional. It’s amazing to see the unexpected art that people capture with a microscope. ”
Zuschratter, from Germany, was selected as the world winner for his striking image of a whole rat embryo captured with a confocal microscope.
He told LiveScience that the embryo is only 1.2 inches long and that he had been treated with a chemical to make his skin and muscles translucent.
Justin Zoll won the America’s Regional Award for his beautiful polarized light microscopy panorama of glutamine and beta alanine crystals. This microscope uses a technique to improve the contrast that improves the image quality
An incredible confocal image of collagen fibers (second generation harmonics) and dermal pigment cells (autofluorescence) on the embryonic skin of the African house snake from Grigorii Timin, Switzerland, won the EMEA section. Timin used the same microscope as Zuschratter to capture bright fibers and deep blue cells.
In the image, fetal tissue and skeleton appear to glow in intense reds, blues, and greens, which was done through the use of fluorescent dyes and natural fluorescence in body tissues.
Zuschratter explained that he scanned the embryo several times with a laser and then combined the images, which took more than 25 hours to complete.
The contest chose three regional winners who submitted images as captivating as the rat fetus.
Justin Zoll won the America Regional Award for his beautiful panorama of polarized light microscopy of glutamine and beta alanine crystals
This microscope uses a technique to improve the contrast that improves the image quality.
In the Asia-Pacific section, the scales collected from the wings of more than 40 species of butterflies were photographed individually and carefully assembled in the winning image of XinPei Zhang, China. Each butterfly displays complex details, colors and contrast and have been intricately placed to create the fascinating image.
Cultured neurons are a good model for testing enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) for many neurological disorders. In this experiment, Efimova examined the uptake of the designed enzyme in the rat cortical neuron
An incredible confocal image of collagen fibers (second generation harmonics) and dermal pigment cells (autofluorescence) on the embryonic skin of the African house snake from Grigorii Timin, Switzerland, won the EMEA section.
Timin used the same microscope as Zuschratter to capture bright fibers and deep blue cells.
In the Asia-Pacific section, the scales collected from the wings of more than 40 species of butterflies were photographed individually and carefully assembled in the winning image of XinPei Zhang, China.
Each butterfly displays complex details, colors and contrast and have been intricately placed to create the fascinating image.
Lee Wagstaff, vice president of sales and marketing for life sciences, Olympus Corporation of the Americas, told IFLScience: “Our goal for the competition is to demonstrate the artistic and scientific value of images captured under a microscope and, in addition, , to encourage people from all over the world to look at scientific images in a new way, appreciate their beauty and share them. ”