Nikon Small World exhibit to open

Awaken the sense of discovery and see another world that exists just beyond perceptible vision, while viewing the merging of science and art in the 2011 Nikon Small World award-winning photomicrographs June 3-Aug. 7 in the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge.

This year's winning entries display a number of outstanding images covering a wide range of biological, chemical, and material substances.  

More than 1,900 images from around the world were submitted during the 2010 competition. The images were evaluated by an independent five-person judging panel on their originality, informational content, technical proficiency and visual impact.

These 20 award winning photomicrographs on tour during 2011 provide AMSE visitors a view of a world that connects them to everything around them — seen and unseen.

The 2011 Nikon Small World traveling exhibition first-place photomicrograph is a stunning image of a mosquito heart magnified 100 times submitted by Jonas King, Department of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

The second-place photomicrograph of a 5-day old zebrafish head magnified 20 times was submitted by Hideo Otsuna, University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City.  The third-place winner, submitted by Oliver Branbach, was a photomicrograph of olfactory bulbs of zebrafish magnified 250 times, while fourth place went to Ricardo Taiariol of Spezia, Italy, for a wasp nest magnified 10 times.

Other award-winning photomicrographs in the 2011 Nikon Small World exhibition show soy sauce, snail radula, soap bubbles, chemical crystals, embryos and liquid crystals.

To view more images from the 2011 Nikon's Small World, visit the electronic gallery featured at www.nikonsmallworld.com

The American Museum of Science and Energy is at 300 S. Tulane Ave., Oak Ridge.