An amazing image of a rat fetus with bright red eyes and iridescent tissue was named the winner of a prestigious scientific photography award.
Scientist Werner Zuschratter captured the embryo on the 21st day of development with a microscope that draws images through a small hole to highlight contrasts and increase clarity.
Together 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, hosted by the Olympus life sciences division, is the second global image of life science light microscopy, focusing on living organisms seen through any type of microscope.
A red-eyed, diabolical rat with bright eyes and tissue has been named the winner of the world’s second global image of the life science light microscope. Scientist Werner Zuschratter captured the embryo on its 21st day of development using a microscope that draws images through a small hole to highlight contrasts and increase clarity.
The global competition received almost 700 entries from 61 different counties.
As Satoshi Nakamura, vice president of global scientific marketing solutions at Olympus, points out: “Not only have we seen a record number of submissions, but the quality and creativity of these images have been exceptional. It’s amazing to see the unexpected art that people capture with a microscope.
Zuschratter from Germany was selected as the overall winner for his eye-catching image of a whole rat embryo captured with a confocal microscope.
He told LiveScience that the embryo is only 1.2 centimeters long and has been treated with a chemical to make the 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 contrast enhancement technique that improves image quality
An incredibly confocal image of collagen fibers (second generation harmonics) and dermal pigment cells (autofluorescence) in the embryonic skin of the house snake from Grigorii Timin, Switzerland, won the EMEA section. Timin used the same microscope as Zuschratter to capture glittering fibers and deep blue cells
In the image, the fetal tissue and skeleton appear to glow bright red, blue, and green, which was done by using 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 – all of which took more than 25 hours to complete.
The competition chose three regional winners who presented images as captivating as the rat fetus.
Justin Zoll won the US Regional Award for his beautiful polarized light microscopy panorama of glutamine and beta alanine crystals
This microscope uses a contrast enhancement technique that improves 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 from XinPei Zhang, China. Each butterfly features intricate details, coloring 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 analyzed the absorption of the enzyme projected into the rat cortical neuron
An incredibly confocal image of collagen fibers (second generation harmonics) and dermal pigment cells (autofluorescence) in the embryonic skin of the house snake from Grigorii Timin, Switzerland, won the EMEA section.
Timin used the same microscope as Zuschratter to capture glittering 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 from XinPei Zhang, China.
Each butterfly has complex details, coloring and contrast and have been intricately placed to create the fascinating image.
Lee Wagstaff, vice president, sales and marketing of life sciences, Olympus Corporation of the Americas, told IFLScience: “Our goal for the competition is to demonstrate both the artistic and scientific value of microscopic images and beyond. to encourage people in every corner of the globe to look at scientific images in a new way, to appreciate their beauty, and to share them with one another. ‘