Meet the winner of Nikon’s Small World in Motion video contest

认识尼康“微观世界动态”视频大赛的获胜者

Abnormal beating of airway cilia from a child with Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia, a genetic disorder affecting respiratory function. Credit: Ning Xu, Tsinghua University. 一名患有原发性纤毛运动障碍（一种影响呼吸功能的遗传性疾病）的儿童，其气道纤毛出现异常跳动。图片来源：清华大学，徐宁。

A Chinese optical engineer is the winner of this year’s Small World in Motion competition, sponsored by Nikon. Ning Xu of Tsinghua University in Beijing beat out 346 other video entries from 40 different countries with his super-resolution video (above) of the abnormal beating of cilia in the airways of a child with a rare genetic respiratory disorder. 一位中国光学工程师赢得了今年由尼康赞助的“微观世界动态”（Small World in Motion）大赛。来自北京清华大学的徐宁，凭借其拍摄的一段超分辨率视频（见上文）脱颖而出，击败了来自40个国家的346部参赛作品。该视频展示了一名患有罕见遗传性呼吸系统疾病的儿童，其气道纤毛的异常跳动。

Founded in 2011, the Nikon Small World in Motion competition is a spinoff of the company’s Small World Photomicrography Competition, which has been around since 1974. Both are meant “to showcase the beauty and complexity of things seen through the light microscope”—one through still photographs, the other through photovideography, taking advantage of all the technological advances that now allow users to make movies or time-lapse images through the microscope. 尼康“微观世界动态”大赛创办于2011年，是该公司自1974年起举办的“微观世界显微摄影大赛”的衍生赛事。两项赛事的宗旨都是“展示通过光学显微镜所观察到的事物的优美与复杂性”——前者通过静态照片，后者则通过显微摄像技术，利用现有的技术进步，让用户能够通过显微镜制作电影或延时摄影图像。

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a genetic disorder that adversely affects the tiny hairlike structures that line the lungs, among other areas. Their wavelike motion helps move around germs, mucus, dust, and other irritants so the body can dispel them via coughing or sneezing. In people born with PCD, there is something wrong with those cilia, so those irritants build up, causing respiratory infections, among other complications. The cilia might be the wrong size, the wrong shape, or missing altogether. They might move abnormally or not move at all. 原发性纤毛运动障碍（PCD）是一种遗传性疾病，会对肺部及其他部位内壁的微小毛发状结构产生不利影响。这些纤毛的波浪式运动有助于移动病菌、粘液、灰尘和其他刺激物，以便身体通过咳嗽或打喷嚏将其排出。对于患有PCD的人来说，这些纤毛存在缺陷，导致刺激物堆积，从而引发呼吸道感染及其他并发症。纤毛可能大小不对、形状异常，甚至完全缺失。它们可能运动异常，或者根本无法运动。

In that sense, the disease is defined by movement, so studying it requires observing those cilia in motion with video, not just still imagery. That’s a challenge, given their small size and rapid movement, plus they must be imaged while still living. That rules out many advanced microscopy techniques, particularly those that rely on intense light or fluorescent dyes. 从这个意义上说，这种疾病是由“运动”定义的，因此研究它需要通过视频观察纤毛的动态，而不仅仅是静态图像。考虑到纤毛体积微小且运动迅速，再加上必须在活体状态下进行成像，这极具挑战性。这也排除了许多先进的显微镜技术，特别是那些依赖强光或荧光染料的技术。

Xu is an optical engineer whose work involves developing advanced imaging systems for observing cellular structure in motion. He captured the cilia movement using diffractive super-resolution microscopy, which employs multiple light waves and a digital micromirror to precisely shape light. This minimizes how much light reaches the living sample and yet can capture the rapid cilia movement at high resolution. 徐宁是一位光学工程师，他的工作涉及开发用于观察细胞结构动态的先进成像系统。他利用衍射超分辨率显微镜捕捉到了纤毛的运动，该技术利用多重光波和数字微镜来精确塑造光线。这最大限度地减少了照射到活体样本上的光量，同时又能以高分辨率捕捉到纤毛的快速运动。

“To understand this disease, you need to observe around 10 seconds of motion, not just a still image,” said Xu. “When people watch cilia beating, they immediately understand that something beautiful and important is happening inside us. I think this competition turns microscopy into a shared language.” “要了解这种疾病，你需要观察大约10秒的运动过程，而不仅仅是一张静态图像，”徐宁说。“当人们看到纤毛跳动时，他们会立刻明白，我们体内正在发生着美丽而重要的事情。我认为这项比赛将显微镜技术变成了一种共同的语言。”

Nguyen Nam Nhat of Vietnam placed second with a video of a tiny roundworm and a single-celled organism; Benedikt Pleyer of Bavaria, Germany, placed third with a video of jellyfish larvae suspended in water droplets; Andrew Moore of Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the US placed fourth with a video of synchronized cell division in neighboring cells; and Patrick Hickey of Hypha Research Ltd. in Edinburgh, Scotland, placed fifth with a video of the dynamics of mitochondria and chloroplasts in Turtle Vine leaf cells. You can check out those winning entries along with several honorable mentions here. 来自越南的Nguyen Nam Nhat凭借一段微小圆虫和单细胞生物的视频获得第二名；来自德国巴伐利亚州的Benedikt Pleyer凭借一段悬浮在水滴中的水母幼虫视频获得第三名；美国霍华德·休斯医学研究所的Andrew Moore凭借一段相邻细胞同步分裂的视频获得第四名；来自苏格兰爱丁堡Hypha Research Ltd.的Patrick Hickey凭借一段龟背竹叶细胞中线粒体和叶绿体动态的视频获得第五名。你可以在此处查看这些获奖作品以及几项荣誉奖作品。