Lenses have gifted people with sight, from enhancing one’s view of distant, twinkling stars to viewing the wriggling amoebas in pond water to the delicate hair-like projections on cells. On September 16, 2026, Nikon Instruments Inc. announced the winners of its 16th annual Nikon Small World in Motion (SWIM) competition, which recognizes and celebrates digital time-lapse photography or movies captured through the light microscope. The competition, which was open to the public, welcomed hundreds of submissions from both amateurs and professionals. Judges reviewed the entries for originality, informational content, technical proficiency, and visual impact. Here, the awardees captured a glimpse of microscopic life.
The first-place prize was awarded to optical engineer Ning Xu of Tsinghua University. His video captured hair-like projections, or cilia, that line the airways and beat in waves to move mucus and debris out of the lungs. Here, the video captured the movement of cilia in a patient with primary ciliary dyskinesia, a rare genetic condition wherein cilia beat abnormally and impair respiratory function. Using diffractive super-resolution microscopy, Xu and his colleagues highlight these delicate living structures.
“When people watch cilia beating, they immediately understand that something beautiful and important is happening inside us,” Xu said in a press release. “I think this competition turns microscopy into a shared language.”
Moving beyond human cilia, the following awardees captured other lifeforms. Nguyen Nam Nhat received the second-place award for his video of a tiny roundworm and single-celled protist called a Dileptus puttering around their shared microscopic world. Dileptus is known to be a predator in the microscopic world and uses its long elephant-like snout to hunt. He captured these organisms using a differential interference contrast microscope.
Benedikt Pleyer received the third-place prize. His video captured jellyfish larvae suspended in water droplets with a darkfield microscope. The droplets offer a unique perspective for viewers as different kinds of larvae move within the water.
“Xu’s work, and the work of all our winners, reflects the competition’s enduring purpose to inspire wonder, fuel discovery, and showcase the artistry inherent in scientific exploration,” said Eric Flem, a communications and customer relationship management manager at Nikon Instruments Inc.
