2012 FEI Image Contest Monthly Winners

September/October Winner – Around the House Category

Aphid
Courtesy of Karin Whitmore, TU Vienna/USTEM, Wien, Austria

The image shows a Aphid on a leaf.

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta SEM Family
Magnification: 85x
Horizontal Field Width: 3.3mm
Vacuum: 4.02E-4bar
Voltage: 5kV
Spot: 2.0
Working Distance: 6.0
Detector: LFD

September/October Winner – The Natural World Category

Alien
Courtesy of David McCarthy (Coloured by Ms Annie Cavanagh), The School of Pharmacy, London, United Kingdom

The image is of the head of an embryonic Zebrafish. This is a model organism currently being used for studies into the genetic causes of neurodegeneration.

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta SEM Family
Magnification: 500
Horizontal Field Width: 512
Vacuum: 112/e-3 Pa
Voltage: 5KV
Spot: 2
Working Distance: 15mm
Detector: SE

September/October Winner – The Human Body Category

Hepatitis B Virus Core
Courtesy of Daniel Beniac, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, Canada

The Cryo TEM image shows Hepatitis B virus core with 3D reconstruction overlay.

Image Details
Instrument used: Tecnai Family
Magnification: 80,000
Voltage: 200 kV
Detector: CCD

September/October Winner – Other Relevant Science Category

Unlocking the secrets of ancient methane seeps
Courtesy of Dr Duncan Pirrie & Dr Gavyn Rollinson, University of Exeter, Penryn, United Kingdom

This image is of Cretaceous sedimentary rocks which occur on Snow Hill Island Antarctica. This image allows us to map the texture of polished thin sections of these spectacular rocks.

Image Details
Instrument used: QEMSCAN
Magnification: 45x
Horizontal Field Width: 300um
Vacuum: 2x10-06 Torr
Working Distance: 23mm
Detector: X-ray map via Bruker SDD

August/September Winner – Around the House Category

Ground Coffee
Courtesy of Maria Carbajo, Universidad dek Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain

The image shows the porous structure of ground coffee.

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta 3D DualBeam Family
Magnification: 500x
Horizontal Field Width: 596 μm
Vacuum: 5.3e-4 Pa
Voltage: 2.0 kV
Spot: 5.0
Working Distance: 10.2 mm
Detector: SE

August/September Winner – The Natural World Category

Geranium Dissectum Pollination
Courtesy of Riccardo Antonelli, Pisa University, Pisa, Italy

The image shows geranium dissectum pollination.

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta SEM Family
Magnification: 500x
Horizontal Field Width: 298 μm
Vacuum: Low vacuum
Voltage: 12.50 kV
Spot: 4.0
Working Distance: 5.1 mm
Detector: LFD (Low vacuum)

August/September Winner – The Human Body Category

Podocytes
Courtesy of Matt Sharp, Southampton University Hospital Trust, Purbrook, United Kingdom

The image shows a mouse kidney fractured to show podocytes.

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta SEM Family
Magnification: 12,000x
Voltage: 10
Spot: 4
Working Distance: 5.36
Detector: SE

August/September Winner – Other Relevant Science Category

Egg of Aedes Aegypti
Courtesy of Francisco Rangel, MCTI / INT, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

This image shows the Aedes aegypti mosquito egg originated in Africa but is now found in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world. The mosquito is a vector for transmitting several tropical diseases such as dengue fever..

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta 3D DualBeam Family
Magnification: 600x
Horizontal Field Width: 497 μm
Vacuum: 120 Pa
Voltage: 20 kV
Spot: 3.0
Working Distance: 9.9
Detector: Mix: BSE + SE

July/August Winner – Around the House Category

Mais Staerke
Courtesy of Ottawa Nicole, Eye of Science, Reutlingen, Germany

This image is a cracked grain of corn showing the starch within the cells.

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta SEM Family
Magnification: 400x
Vacuum: high
Voltage: 7kv
Spot: 3
Working Distance: 10mm
Detector: SE+BSE+BSE

July/August Winner – The Natural World Category

Spider Skin
Courtesy of Maria Carbajo, Universidad dek Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain

The image shows the texture of the spider skin, with a hair root and pollen grains remains adhered to the skin.

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta 3D DualBeam Family
Magnification: 12000x
Horizontal Field Width: 24.9
Vacuum: 2.7e-3 Pa
Voltage: 10
Spot: 5
Working Distance: 10
Detector: ETD

July/August Winner – The Human Body Category

Intestinal Bacteria
Courtesy of Oliver Meckes, Eye of Science, Reutlingen, Germany

The image shows the human intestine containing hundreds of differend kinds of bacteria.

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta SEM Family
Magnification: 7500x
Vacuum: high
Spot: 3
Working Distance: 10mm
Detector: SE+BSE

July/August Winner – Other Relevant Science Category

Aphid Chaitophorus
Courtesy of Riccardo Antonelli, Pisa University, Pisa, Italy

This image shows a live aphid Chaitophorus sp. on populus alba leaf.

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta SEM Family
Magnification: 150x
Horizontal Field Width: 995 μm
Vacuum: 0.975 Torr
Voltage: 12.50 kV
Spot: 4.0
Working Distance: 10.4 mm
Detector: LFD (Low vacuum)

June/July Winner – Around the House Category

Tungsten filament
Courtesy of Gerald Poirier, Princeton, New Jersey, US

The image shows the Tungsten filament of a household incandescent lamp. Tungsten is used because of its electrical and mechanical properties: strength, ductility and workability. Tungsten can readily be formed into the filament coils.

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta 3D DualBeam Family
Magnification: 59x
Vacuum: -5 torr
Voltage: 15 keV
Spot: 3
Working Distance: 10.8
Detector: SE

June/July Winner – The Natural World Category

Moss
Courtesy of Michal Rawski, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland

The image of Moss, a host for methane eating bacteria.

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta 3D DualBeam Family
Magnification: 500x

June/July Winner – The Human Body Category

War in Our Human Trenches
Courtesy of Daniel Monteyne, Gilles Vanwalleghem, Etienne Pays, David Pérez-Morga and CMMI at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

The image shows the dramatic encounter in the liver of our unsung heroes (immune cells) against an invading parasite (the trypanosome). Each side bears an impressive arsenal of chemical weapons that will define at the end the onset, or not, of Sleeping Sickness.

Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta 3D DualBeam Family
Magnification: 8658.29x
Horizontal Field Width: 3062.5 μm
Voltage: 20 keV
Spot: 3.00
Working Distance: 6.85
Detector: Etd SE

June/July Winner – Other Relevant Science Category

Invisible Worlds
Courtesy of Luca Boarino, INRiM, Torino, Italy

Silver clusters deposited by thermal evaporation onto self-assembled polystyrene nano-spheres (900 nm). Self-assembled polystyrene nanospheres are used as masks for thin films and materials nanostructuration on large area.

Image Details
Instrument used: Inspect Family
Magnification: 5000x
Horizontal Field Width: 2 µm
Vacuum: .2 mbar
Voltage: 2 kV
Spot: 3
Working Distance: 10.2
Detector: SE