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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