來自今年尼康小世界動態(tài)競賽的令人驚嘆的顯微視頻

來自今年尼康小世界動態(tài)競賽的令人驚嘆的顯微視頻

From cannibalistic tardigrades to snoozing skeleton shrimp, the winners of the Nikon Small World In Motion Competition have been announced, offering a fascinating glimpse into the rarely seen world of the oh-so-very-small.

從同類相食的緩步動物到打盹的骷髏蝦，尼康小世界動態(tài)攝影大賽的獲勝者已經(jīng)公布，這讓我們得以一窺罕見的“哦，非常小”的世界。

Now in its ninth year, the Nikon Small World in Motion is the video component of the long-standing Nikon Small World still-photography competition, whose winners were announced back in October. The video arm of the competition was added in 2011 in response to new technology that opened up the field to recording movies or time-lapse photography through a microscopic lens.

尼康小世界動態(tài)攝影大賽(Nikon Small World in Motion)已經(jīng)舉辦了九年，是尼康小世界靜態(tài)攝影大賽(Nikon Small World still-photography competition)的視頻部分。2011年，隨著新技術(shù)的出現(xiàn)，通過顯微鏡頭記錄電影或延時攝影成為可能，比賽的視頻部分應(yīng)運而生。

The top prize was handed to Dr Philippe Laissue, a biologist and assistant professor at the University of Essex in the UK, for a stunning video of a polyp emerging from a reef-building staghorn coral.

最高獎項授予英國埃塞克斯大學(xué)生物學(xué)家和助理教授菲利普·拉索博士，他拍攝了一段令人驚嘆的視頻，展示了一個珊瑚蟲從造礁的鹿角珊瑚中出現(xiàn)。

Most reef-building corals contain photosynthetic algae, called zooxanthellae, that live in their tissues as part of a mutualistic relationship; the coral provides the shelter and components needed for photosynthesis, while the algae provide the oxygen.

大多數(shù)造礁珊瑚都含有一種叫做zooxanthellae的光合藻類，這種藻類生活在它們的組織中，是互惠關(guān)系的一部分;珊瑚為光合作用提供庇護(hù)所和所需成分，而藻類提供氧氣。

In Dr Laissue’s winning video, we get an intimate glimpse into this relationship, with the algae (colored in magenta) shown inside the coral. Not only is this an important process to document given the threat of climate change to coral reefs, but it’s also extremely difficult to capture because corals are extremely sensitive to light.

在Laissue博士獲獎的視頻中，我們可以近距離地看到這種關(guān)系，珊瑚內(nèi)部的海藻(用洋紅色表示)?？紤]到氣候變化對珊瑚礁的威脅，這不僅是一個重要的記錄過程，而且因為珊瑚對光非常敏感，所以很難捕捉到。

I am fascinated by their otherworldliness and beauty, and have been working on imaging them for several years now,” Dr Laissue told IFLscience. With gentle fluorescence microscopy, we can collect important information about what is happening on the cellular level when corals react to different environmental conditions. This helps us to better understand corals and their development, thus contributing to finding the best strategies to protect and conserve them.”

Laissue博士告訴IFLscience:“我被它們的超凡脫俗和美麗所吸引，幾年來我一直在研究如何給它們成像。”“利用溫和的熒光顯微鏡，我們可以收集到重要的信息，這些信息是關(guān)于珊瑚對不同環(huán)境條件的反應(yīng)時，在細(xì)胞水平上發(fā)生了什么。”這有助我們更好地了解珊瑚及其發(fā)展，從而找出最佳的保育策略。”

“In the beginning, I used conventional fluorescence microscopy techniques, which damaged my coral samples, or didn't produce very useful images. So I got a small Royal Society grant to make a bespoke light-sheet microscope, which uses very little light and keeps the coral happy.”

“一開始，我使用傳統(tǒng)的熒光顯微鏡技術(shù)，這損害了我的珊瑚樣本，或者沒有產(chǎn)生非常有用的圖像。所以我得到了一小筆皇家學(xué)會的資助，用來制作一種定制的薄膠片顯微鏡，這種顯微鏡只需要很少的光線，卻能讓珊瑚快樂。”