A video of tiny hair-like structures fluttering in the airways of a child with a rare genetic disease has won an international microscopic imagery contest.<\/p>\n
The video, taken by Ning Xu, a researcher at Tsinghua University in China, is one of dozens highlighted by the 2026 Nikon Small World In Motion competition.<\/p>\n
The competition is open to anyone around the world with an interest in film or time-lapse photography through a microscope.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr Xu’s video, magnified to 100 times in size, shows cilia that line airways to clear out mucus.<\/p>\n
In people like this child with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), they move strangely and make it harder to keep lungs clear.<\/p>\n
Dr Xu used a series of complicated light waves to illuminate different parts of the sample in colour, allowing researchers to gain a better understanding of PCD.<\/p>\n
Surprise roundworm altercation<\/p>\n
Vietnamese researcher Nguyen Nam Nhat was awarded second place for a video of a microscopic roundworm, or nematode, encountering a single-celled organism called a Dileptus.<\/p>\n
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Mr Nguyen said the footage was a chance observation.<\/p>\n
“I had intended only to film Dileptus specimens from a naturally collected water sample in order to study their morphology,” he said.<\/p>\n
But a rogue roundworm appeared, pressing itself up against the Dileptus. The Dileptus lost a chunk of its tiny body in the struggle to escape.<\/p>\n
“After examining several similar cases, I found that pressing against or immobilising other organisms appears to be one of the typical defensive behaviours employed by nematodes,” Mr Nguyen said.<\/p>\n
Baby jellyfish in ocean drops<\/p>\n
Microscopic photographer Benedikt Pleyer won third place for a video of various types of jellyfish larvae.<\/p>\n
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Mr Pleyer set up the shots by suspending water droplets on a string over a petri dish, sliding tiny larvae into the drops.<\/p>\n
Most jellyfish-containing droplets splashed into the petri dish too quickly to film, so it took months to collect the footage.<\/p>\n
“This is a game of patience,” he said.<\/p>\n
Sea slug, fungus take honourable mentions<\/p>\n
Other entrants received honourable mentions such as a video of the Cyerce kikutarobabai sea slug, which is native to the western Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n
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Animals weren’t the only things on display, with one video showing the growth of the Penicillium venetum fungus, which can cause rot in garlic.<\/p>\n
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Another video showed the formation of crystals of the food additive monosodium glutamate (MSG).<\/p>\n
Loading…Bioluminescent sparkles\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Pleyer also received an honourable mention for a video of tropical phytoplankton he had collected and cultured.<\/p>\n
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The phytoplankton, which are magnified to 200 times their size, glow when they are physically disturbed.<\/p>\n
“The biggest problem with this bioluminescent reaction is how to trigger it and to at the same time get a clear shot,” Mr Pleyer said.<\/p>\n
Jostling the phytoplankton to get a reaction makes the camera shake too much at this resolution, so Mr Pleyer used glycerol to fix them in place, and a small electric charge to trigger the bioluminescence.<\/p>\n
Tardigrades, animals half a millimetre in size, featured in several other videos.<\/p>\n
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Mr Pleyer said amateur microscopy enthusiasts had an important role to play in science.<\/p>\n
“The microcosmos is a vast field and we don’t know much about it yet,” he said.<\/p>\n
In the past decade, it’s become much easier and cheaper to see moving things at the micro scale.<\/p>\n
“With the digital revolution, a sensor, a camera, you can just go,” Mr Pleyer said.<\/p>\n
“You will come across things that probably have not been observed.”<\/p>\n