It’s not every day that a simple petri dish generates more interest under the microscope than the sample it contains.
But this is just what happened when Kevin Mackenzie removed a petri dish from a lab fridge and began to study it under the microscope. The prepared sample was immediately forgotten about when he noticed the striking pattern formed by condensation on the dish lid. In fact, he was so taken by this simple image of water droplets that he captured it on the microscope’s digital camera.
And it is just as well he did for his chance discovery has won him an Honourable Mention in the 2006 Nikon Small World Competition.
This international competition, which is open to anyone with an interest in photography through the microscope, attracted over 1,700 entries and included images of miniscule objects, creatures and structures that cannot normally be seen by the naked eye.
Kevin’s highly praised image will also feature in a 2007 wall calendar produced by Small World, the leading forum for showcasing the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope.
But success didn’t end there for Kevin. He said: “Some years ago, I came across some amazing images of Vitamin C crystals in a book and wondered how they’d been captured. I decided to have a go and one of the resulting micrographs has just won second prize in Microscience 2006, a competition organised by the Royal Microscopical Society.”
Kevin, a Technologist with the Microscopy and Imaging Facility at the University’s Institute of Medical Sciences, added: “It was great to get an Honourable Mention and I was delighted to win a second prize too.”
The technologist has had acclaim for his micrographs in the past. He said: “In 2003, I was awarded an Honourable Mention in the Nikon Small World competition for an image of a moth’s wing. This image also appeared in the science magazine Scientific American in 2005.”
And if you’re interested in having a closer look at life under the microscope, Kevin and his colleagues will be demonstrating the work that goes on within the Microscopy and Imaging Facility during the Techfest science festival in September - www.techfest.org.uk/techwork.php