A groundbreaking video showcasing single-celled organisms moving around the gut of a termite has won the Nikon Small World in Motion 2021 competition.
The competition is held to honor microscopy photography.
In its 11th year, this microscopic video competition continues to provide astonishing insights into the world of tiny organisms.
For nearly 50 years, the Nikon Small World photography competition has celebrated microscopy photography. Eleven years ago, this competition added a video category called Small World in Motion. Nikon states that the competition is a testament to the rapid advancement of new microscopy technologies.
First Prize – The Symbiosis of Termites and Single-Celled Parasites
This year’s top prize was awarded to an unprecedented video depicting the symbiotic relationship between termites and protists, the tiny microorganisms that live parasitically in their guts. These microorganisms assist termites in digesting wood but are notoriously sensitive to light and oxygen, making it extremely challenging to capture moving images without immediately harming either the host or the parasite.
Second Prize – The Formation and Metastasis of Tumors in the Human Body
The second place was awarded to Stephanie Hachey and Christopher Hughes, two molecular biology scientists from the University of California, Irvine. They created an incredible time-lapse video showing how a tiny tumor in humans forms and metastasizes over a span of 10 days.
Third Prize – Water Flea Giving Birth
Taking the third position was Ukrainian microscopist Andrei Savitsky with a captivating video of a water flea giving birth.
Other Nominated Videos
Other standout videos nominated this year include a time-lapse of a group of bacteria growing over five days, a surreal video of 10 days of moss development, and an incredible video showing the formation of neural networks in the hippocampus of a mouse brain. We invite you to take a look.
