A stunning image of a rat fetus with glowing red eyes and iridescent fabric has been named the winner of a prestigious scientific photography award.
Scientist Werner Zuschratter captured the embryo on its 21st day of development using a microscope that images through a small hole to emphasize contrasts and increase clarity.
Along with Zuschratter’s winning masterpiece, the judges chose a photo with intricate details of snake skin pigment cells and a collage of more than 40 colorful butterfly wings as regional runners-up.
The competition, organized by Olympus’ Life Sciences division, is the second Global Image of the Year Life Science Light Microscopy, which focuses on living organisms as seen through any type of microscope.
A rat fetus with red, devil eyes and glowing tissue has been named the winner of the second Global Image of the Year Life Science Light Microscopy. Scientist Werner Zuschratter captured the embryo on its 21st day of development using a microscope that images through a small hole to emphasize contrasts and increase clarity
The global competition received nearly 700 entries from 61 different countries.
As Satoshi Nakamura, vice president of Scientific Solutions Global Marketing at Olympus, emphasizes, “Not only did we see a record number of submissions, but the quality and creativity of those images were exceptional. It’s amazing to see the unexpected art that people capture with a microscope. ‘
Zuschratter from Germany was selected as the global winner for his striking photo of an entire rat embryo captured with a confocal microscope.
He told Live Science that the embryo is only 1.2 inches long and has been treated in a chemical to make the skin and muscles translucent.
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 enhancing technique that improves the quality of the image
An incredible confocal image of collagen fibers (second harmonic generation) and skin pigment cells (autofluorescence) in the embryonic skin of African house snakes from Grigorii Timin, Switzerland won the EMEA section. Timin used the same microscope as Zuschratter to record the glitter fibers and deep blue cells
In the image, the tissue and skeleton of the fetus appear to glow in deep red, blue and green hues, which was done through the use of fluorescent dyes and natural fluorescence in body tissues.
Zuschratter explained that he scanned the embryo with a laser multiple times and then combined the images – all of which took over 25 hours.
The competition chose three regional winners who presented images as captivating as the rat’s 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 enhancing technique that improves the quality of the image.
In the Asia-Pacific section, scales collected from the wings of more than 40 species of butterflies were individually photographed and carefully assembled into the winning image from XinPei Zhang, China. Each butterfly displays intricate details, colors and contrast, and they are all intricately placed to create the mesmerizing image
Cultured neurons are a good model to test enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) for many neurological conditions. In this experiment, Efimova looked at the uptake of engineered enzyme in the rat cortical neuron
An incredible confocal image of collagen fibers (second harmonic generation) and skin pigment cells (autofluorescence) in the embryonic skin of African house snakes from Grigorii Timin, Switzerland won the EMEA section.
Timin used the same microscope as Zuschratter to record the glitter fibers and deep blue cells.
In the Asia-Pacific section, scales collected from the wings of more than 40 species of butterflies were individually photographed and carefully assembled into the winning image from XinPei Zhang, China.
Each butterfly displays intricate details, colors and contrast, and they are all intricately placed to create the mesmerizing image.
Lee Wagstaff, Vice President, Life Science Sales and Marketing, Olympus Corporation of the Americas, told IFLScience: “ Our aim of the competition is to demonstrate both the artistic and scientific value of images taken under the microscope and beyond, to help people in every corner of the world to look at scientific images in a new way, to appreciate their beauty and to share it with each other. ‘