The above-pictured fluorescent hand of a Madagascar Giant Day Gecko won the 48th Annual Nikon Small World Photo Microscopy Competition. The top 20 images can be found here: Additional informtion: Nikon Instruments Inc. today unveiled the winners of the 48th annual Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. This year’s first place prize was awarded to Grigorii Timin, supervised by Dr. Michel Milinkovitch at the University of Geneva, for his remarkable image of an embryonic hand of a Madagascar giant day gecko. Masterfully blending imaging technology and artistic creativity, Timin utilized high-resolution microscopy and image-stitching to capture this species of Phelsuma grandis day gecko. A visually stunning and painstaking technique, Timin used image-stitching to merge hundreds of images together to create the final image of his gecko. Preparing the sample was an added challenge. Timin performed whole-mount fluorescent staining and tissue clearing to capture the entire embryonic hand with a confocal microscope. “This embryonic hand is about 3 mm (0.12 in) in length, which is a huge sample for high-resolution microscopy,” said Timin. “The scan consists of 300 tiles, each containing about 250 optical sections, resulting in more than two days of acquisition and approximately 200 GB of data.” The final result gives a glimpse into the hidden beauty and complexity of the gecko, highlighting the nerves in a cyan color and the bones, tendons, ligaments, skin and blood cells in a range of warmer colors. “This particular image is beautiful and informative, as an overview and also when you magnify it in a...
Published By: Nikonrumors - Tuesday, 11 October, 2022