15th Annual Nikon Small World in Motion Competition Winner Magnifies Self-Pollination Process in a Common Wildflower

Time-lapse video of a thymeleaf speedwell reveals the reproductive strategy select plants may adopt when pollinators are scarce

MELVILLE, N.Y., Sept. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Nikon Instruments Inc. today unveiled the winners of its 15th annual Nikon Small World in Motion Video Competition, an integral component of the Nikon Small World competition and a showcase of the world’s most dynamic microscopic imagery. The first-place prize was awarded to retired engineer-turned-microscopist Jay McClellan for his striking video capturing the self-pollination of a thymeleaf speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia). The process demonstrates the resilience found in nature, revealing one of the hidden strategies select species of plants use to adapt and survive.

McClellan’s work fuses decades of experience in industrial machine vision system development with a passion for microscopy and photography, resulting in videos that are both mesmerizing and informative. His winning video captures a tiny blue blossom opening to the morning sun, its stamens elongating until one curls toward the pistil, dusting the stigma with pollen and completing self-pollination. “This isn’t some exotic plant you’d need to travel the world to find. It’s a common ‘weed’ that might be growing right under your feet,” said McClellan. “I love the idea that anyone could discover beauty like this if they just looked closely.”

Thymeleaf speedwells bloom quickly and unpredictably, meaning filming such a fleeting biological process required a perfect storm of preparation, timing, and technique. To capture the video, McClellan had to anticipate movements and program a custom motion-control system to keep the reproductive structures perfectly in frame. He also employed advanced focus-stacking techniques to maintain crystal clarity across focal planes, a challenge that led him to develop his own hardware and software for microscopic video. “I may capture many terabytes of raw footage for a single shot,” he explained. “Running the focus-stacking overnight is like waiting for Christmas morning — you never know whether you’ll get a disappointment or something amazing.”

McClellan emphasized the honor he feels to be among the many talented individuals who have participated in Nikon Small World for over five decades, and the importance of bringing the microscopic world to light: “The best part for me is not winning a prize but getting the opportunity to share my work with the world and let people see microscopic wonders in a new way.”

McClellan also earned an honorable mention in this year’s Small World in Motion competition for his video of the dissolution and crystallization of cobalt, copper, and sodium chlorides. He has now placed four total videos in the competition since 2023, including his movie of water droplets evaporating from the wing scales of a peacock butterfly, for which he earned second place in the 2024 Small World in Motion competition.

“As we celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Small World in Motion competition, this year’s winners showcase the extraordinary choreography of life unfolding at a scale beyond ordinary sight,” said Eric Flem, Senior Manager, Communications and CRM at Nikon Instruments. “Jay McClellan and all our other winners’ videos reflect the competition’s enduring purpose to inspire wonder, fuel discovery, and showcase the artistry inherent in scientific exploration.”

Outside of Nikon Small World, McClellan is currently working on a nature documentary featuring tiny creatures, using a portable version of his video rig to take his imaging techniques into the field.

Second place was awarded to Benedikt Pleyer for his video of volvox algae swimming in a water drop that had been pipetted into the central opening of a Japanese 50 Yen Coin.

Third place was awarded to Dr. Eric Vitriol for his video of actin and mitochondria in mouse brain tumor cells.

The 2025 judging panel included: 

• Deboki Chakravarti, PhD, Science Communicator, Host and Creator of “Journey to the Microcosmos,” “Tiny Matters,” “Scishow Tangents,” and “Crash Course Organic Chemistry.”
• Jeff DelViscio, Chief Multimedia Editor and Executive Producer at Scientific American
• Andrew Moore, PhD, Postdoctoral Scientist in the Lippincott-Schwartz Lab at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus
• Liz Roth-Johnson, PhD, Curator of Life Sciences at the California Science Center
• W. Gregory Sawyer, PhD, Chief BioEngineering Officer and Chair of the Department of BioEngineering at the Moffitt Cancer Center

For additional information, please visit www.nikonsmallworld.com, or follow the conversation on Facebook, Twitter @NikonSmallWorld and Instagram @NikonSmallWorld, and LinkedIn.

NIKON SMALL WORLD IN MOTION WINNERS

1st Place

Jay McClellan

Saranac, Michigan, USA       

Self-pollination in a flower of thymeleaf speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia)          

Time lapse, Image Stacking  

5X (Objective Lens Magnification)

2nd Place

Benedikt Pleyer        

Kirchberg, Bavaria, Germany

Volvox algae swimming in water drop that has been pipetted into the central opening of a Japanese 50 Yen Coin   

Darkfield        

50X (Objective Lens Magnification)

3rd Place

Dr. Eric Vitriol           

Augusta University    

Department of Neuroscience & Regenerative Medicine    

Augusta, Georgia, USA          

Actin and mitochondria in mouse brain tumor cells

Super-Resolution       

40X (Objective Lens Magnification)

4th Place

Penny Fenton

Ipswich, Suffolk, United Kingdom     

A tardigrade moving around a volvox algae colony

Darkfield        

20X (Objective Lens Magnification)

5th Place

Dr. Alvaro Migotto

Centro de Biologia Marinha  

São Sebastião, São Paulo, Brazil       

A newborn sea urchin walking along the seabed     

Darkfield        

10X (Objective Lens Magnification)

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Dr. Maik C. Bischoff  

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill  

Department of Biology         

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA      

Developing testis of a fly showing actin cytoskeleton (teal) and nuclei (red)         

Fluorescence 

25X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Scott Burlingham, Dr. Soham Ghosh, Gabriel Galindo & Dr. Hiroshi Kimura     

Colorado State University     

Department of Biochemistry

Fort Collins, Colorado, USA   

24-hour time-lapse of mouse embryonic fibroblasts reforming their monolayer after scratch    

Confocal, Fluorescence         

40X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Alexandre Dumoulin      

University of Zurich  

Department of Molecular Life Sciences       

Zurich, Switzerland   

In vitro growth of chick sensory neurons, shown in gold using a dye marking their internal structure (18 hour time lapse)

Confocal        

40X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Laurent Formery

Stanford University   

Department of Biology         

Pacific Grove, California, USA          

Metamorphosis of two sea urchin larvae, from swimming bilateral larvae into pentaradial crawling juveniles          

Brightfield      

5X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Quinten Geldhof       

Winthrop, Massachusetts, USA         

Circulatory system, gut, and claw function of an American dog tick          

Darkfield        

4X and 10X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Sebastian Golojuch  

University of Oxford 

Department of Chemistry     

Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom          

Delivery of a synthetic mRNA to cultured HeLa cells

Spinning Disk Confocal         

60X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Ziwen He & Min Y. Pack

University of Minnesota       

Chemical Engineering and Material Science           

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA         

Glycerol/water droplet impacting on a thin oil layer          

Confocal        

5X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Patrick C. Hickey

Hypha Research Limited       

Edinburgh, Midlothian, United Kingdom      

Time lapse of hyphal fusion and mitochondrial dynamics in mycelium of a morel fungus (Morchella)    

Confocal        

60X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Jay McClellan

Saranac, Michigan, USA       

Dissolution and crystallization of cobalt, copper and sodium chlorides      

Darkfield, Time Lapse, Image Stacking        

5X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Grace McLaughlin & Dr. Amy Gladfelter    

UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University

UNC: Department of Biology, Duke: Department of Cell Biology   

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA      

Nuclei flowing through a fungal mycelium  

Confocal

40X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Alvaro Migotto   

Centro de Biologia Marinha  

São Sebastião, São Paulo, Brazil       

Marine mollusk larva before and after metamorphosis        

Darkfield        

10X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Irina Petrova Adamatzky

UWE Bristol   

College of Arts, Technology and Environment         

Bristol, Somerset, United Kingdom  

A Japanese boxer mantis (Acromantis japonica) laying her ootheca (egg case)    

Reflected Light          

2X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Benedikt Pleyer        

Kirchberg, Bavaria, Germany

Cyanobacteria (Oscillatoria princeps) filaments from Ishigaki, Japan        

Polarized Light          

200X – 400X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Louis Romette & Christophe Leterrier       

Aix-Marseille Université        

Institut de NeuroPhysioPathologie    

Marseille, France      

Live 65-hour recording of rat hippocampal neuron growth (day 3 to day 6)          

Confocal        

60X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Gaylene Russell McEvoy, Dr. Graham Fraser & Dr. Hamza Shogan    

Memorial University of Newfoundland        

Division of BioMedical Sciences       

St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada     

Red blood cells flowing through a capillary network in rat skeletal muscle

Brightfield      

10X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Dr. Zachary Sanchez

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, Tennessee, USA    

Contracting human heart muscle cells showing mitochondria (red) and calcium waves (blue)    

Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM)   

60X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Wim van Egmond     

Micropolitan Museum          

Berkel en Rodenrijs, Zuid Holland, Netherlands      

Cornflower root hairs

Image Stacking         

5X and 25X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Wim van Egmond     

Micropolitan Museum          

Berkel en Rodenrijs, Zuid Holland, Netherlands      

Hat thrower fungus (Pilobolus) on rabbit dung        

Image Stacking         

5X (Objective Lens Magnification)

Janosch Waldkircher

Basel, Basel-Stadt, Switzerland        

Male dung beetle (Sulcophanaeus imperator). Composition of 7,073 individual images

Focus Stacking Video

1.4X (Objective Lens Magnification) 

About the Nikon Small World Competition

The Nikon Small World Competition is open to anyone with an interest in photography or video. Participants may upload digital images and videos directly at www.nikonsmallworld.com. For additional information, contact Nikon Small World, Nikon Instruments Inc., 1300 Walt Whitman Road, Melville, NY 11747, USA, or phone (631) 547-8569. Entry forms for Nikon’s 2026 Small World and Small World in Motion Competitions are available at https://enter.nikonsmallworld.com/.

About Nikon Instruments Inc.

Nikon Instruments Inc. is the US microscopy arm of Nikon Healthcare, a world leader in the development and manufacturing of optical, digital imaging technology and software for biomedical applications. For more information, please visit https://www.microscope.healthcare.nikon.com or contact us at 1-800-52-NIKON.

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