It's a Bug's Life, as Flawless Photo of Wasp Wins Worldwide Olympus
BioScapes Competition
Winning Sure Doesn't Sting - Olympus BioScapes 2008 Competition
CENTER VALLEY, Pa. (Business Wire EON/PRWEB ) November 14, 2008 --
A luminous golden ‘fairy fly' that seems to
defy gravity as it hovers with feathered wings against a dark background
took top prize in the 2008 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition®,
the world's foremost forum for showcasing microscope photos and videos
of life science subjects. Mr. M. I. “Spike”
Walker of Staffordshire, England, took top honors for the shimmering
image of what is called a fairy fly, actually a tiny wasp that may be
the world's smallest insect at only 0.21mm long, or 1/25 the length of
the average red ant. The eerily glowing wasp, captured in exquisite
detail, reveals the extraordinary delicacy, balance, beauty, and
numerous colors in the diminutive creature. Mr. Walker's image triumphed
over more than 1500 other images and movies - a competition record - to
earn First Prize, $5000 worth of Olympus equipment. Now in its fifth
year, the Olympus BioScapes competition is the world's premier platform
for honoring images and videos of human, plant and animal subjects as
captured through light microscopes. Any life science subject is
eligible, and entries are judged based on the science they depict, their
aesthetics (beauty and impact of the image), and their technical merit.
This year, in addition to Prizes 1-10, 70 other images and movies were
recognized with Honorable Mentions. All images and the names of all
honorees may be viewed online at www.olympusbioscapes.com.
This year's winning images reflect a fascination with the awe-inspiring
influence of science in everyday life, with surprising views of white
wine, human teeth, ticks, wings and feathers, fruit flies, honeybees,
mosquitoes, moss, pollen, lobster eggs, tongues, snails and petrified
wood among the honorees. Across the spectrum are other images that
reflect the latest advances in neuroscience and cell biology, including
the Fourth Prize image of zebrafish neurons captured by Albert Pan of
Harvard University, using the “Brainbow”
imaging technique, one of the most advanced fluorescence imaging
methodologies available today. (Last year's top prize winner was a
Brainbow image captured by another researcher in the same Harvard
University laboratory.)
“The winning images reflect the awesome grace
and mystery of our natural world,” said Osamu
Joji, Group Vice President and General Manager, Life Science, for
Olympus America. “Each year, we review over a
thousand images that provide us with a visual record of science in our
time, images that shed light on the intricacy of our living universe.
These images not only give us a new understanding of familiar objects,
they reflect the extraordinary work being done in laboratories today
where dedicated researchers study neurological disorders, cancer, plant
science, developmental biology and much more.”
Other images recognized in this year's competition include one of a cell
expressing the protein of the Ebola virus; numerous striking photos of
cells and the brain; vibrant botanical images; E. Coli; a fossil
diatom, and much more.
Twenty of the 2008 winning and Honorable Mention images will be
displayed in San Francisco at an event on December 14, and then will
begin a national tour that will take them to such destinations as
Philadelphia; suburban Washington DC; the Marine Biological Laboratory
in Woods Hole, MA; and Allentown, PA. Other displays of winning
BioScapes images will simultaneously be touring in cities across the US,
Canada and Latin America throughout 2009.
Olympus selects outstanding authorities in microscope imaging as judges
for the competition, which is open to users of any brand of light
microscope and camera equipment.
This year's BioScapes judges included Claire M. Brown, Ph.D., Director
of the Life Sciences Complex Imaging Facility at McGill University in
Montreal, Canada; Douglas Murphy, Ph.D., Director of the Light
Microscopy Facility at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia
Farms Research Center in Ashburn, Virginia; John M. Murray, M.D., Ph.D.,
Associate Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in Philadelphia; and
award-winning photomicrographer Wim van Egmond of the Netherlands.
In addition to Spike Walker (1st) and Albert Pan (4th), other Top 10
winners include: Thomas Shearer of Duluth, MN, for his image of agatized
petrified wood; Stephen Nagy of Helena, MT, for his photo of an extinct
fossil diatom; Shirley Owens, formerly of Michigan State University, for
her photo of the Cup Plant Silphium perfoliatum; David Walker of
West Yorkshire, U.K., for his depiction of a snail radula; Neal Melvin
of the University of Texas in Dallas for his image of an adult mouse
hippocampus; Gerd Guenther of Duesseldorf, Germany, for his Trichodina
pediculus; Charles Krebs of Issaquah, Washington, for his image of a
jewel beetle, and Petr Znachor of the Institute of Hydrobiology in the
Czech Republic, for his depiction of a colonial diatom.
About Olympus
Olympus is a precision technology leader, creating innovative
opto-digital solutions in healthcare, life science and consumer
electronics products. Olympus works collaboratively with its customers
and affiliates worldwide to leverage R&D investment in precision
technology and manufacturing processes across diverse business lines.
For more information, visit www.olympusamerica.com.
Release Summary:
More than 1500 life science images and movies from 47 countries entered
Olympus BioScapes competition in 2008. A luminous golden fairy fly that
seems to defy gravity took 1st prize.
Keyword Tags:
bioscapes, cell biology, competition, microscopes, neuroscience,
olympus, photomicrography, wasp, worldwide
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