A Rat's Eye is a Vision of Beauty: Scientific Image Takes First Place in
Olympus BioScapes(TM) Photo Competition
Photos Start National Tour in San Francisco
MELVILLE, N.Y., Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- If the key to the inner self is visible by looking deeply into someone's eyes, rats must be among nature's most glorious creatures - -- for a stunning, richly patterned photograph showing the inside of an aging rat's eye has earned first prize in the 2005 Olympus BioScapes(TM) International Digital Imaging Competition. Olympus sponsors the annual competition to honor the finest life science images and movies in the world, as captured through light microscopes.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051220/NYTU068 )
Winners of this year's competition were recognized this week at San Francisco's Diablo Grande Wine Gallery, where selected images will remain on display to the public for another week. After leaving San Francisco, 21 of the photographs will tour museums throughout the U.S. as part of a program developed in tandem with Natural History Magazine.
The winning photo by Hussein Mansour, a doctoral candidate at Australia's University of Sydney, shows how aging can affect the eye and brain. Blood vessels look blue, and astrocytes are mostly red, creating a graceful branching pattern. But the image's beauty belies a darker truth. As rats (and people) age, their astrocytes change; many scientists believe that astrocyte changes are at the heart of some age-related brain diseases and degeneration.
"These pictures combine aesthetic beauty, technical expertise and scientific knowledge to tell stories of great meaning," said George Steares, Group Vice President of Olympus America's Scientific Equipment Group.
Other top-five winners in the BioScapes competition were Ruben Sandoval of Indiana University, for a vivid 3D image of a kidney glomerulus; Viktor Sykora from the Czech Republic, for a superb photograph of a seed; Rudolf Oldenbourg of the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, and James LaFountain of SUNY Buffalo for their masterful image of meiosis in a fly; and Thomas Deerinck of UC San Diego, for a nanotechnology image of a mouse kidney. In addition to the top 10 winners, 68 honorable mention awards were named, including nine movies.
The Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition recognizes the finest images of life science specimens captured through light microscopes, using any magnification and any brand of equipment. Each entrant can submit up to five movies, images, or image sequences. Entries must include information on the importance or "story" behind the images. First prize is Olympus products and equipment valued at $5,000.
An impartial panel of judges selects the winners each year. This year's judges included Dr. Doug Murphy, Professor of Cell Biology and Director of the School of Medicine Microscope Facility at Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore; George Patterson, of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD; Dr. Alison North, Director of The Rockefeller University's Bio-Imaging Resource Center in New York City; and Dr. Kenneth Fish, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh.
A gallery of winners and honorable mentions is available at http://www.olympusbioscapes.com. SOURCE Olympus America Inc.
