The 2026 Nikon Small World competitions, announced in October, honor striking microscopy images and videos that reveal hidden cellular interactions. One featured winner is Patrick Hickey, a mycologist at Hypha Research Ltd., who captured a time-lapse video of mitochondria in a cold-hardy turtle vine. Hickey improvised the sample from a kitchen windowsill plant after his usual sources dried up, and was surprised by the activity he saw.
Using confocal laser scanning microscopy, Hickey recorded mitochondria darting around slower chloroplasts, which he compared to motorcyclists weaving through traffic. The technique uses fluorescent dyes to label specific structures, then scans the sample layer by layer with a laser to create detailed images. This approach avoids the blurriness of standard microscopes, which illuminate whole samples at once.
The video challenges the traditional view of mitochondria as simple "powerhouses of the cell." Hickey suggests they may play broader roles in cytoplasmic streaming, signaling, and interactions with other organelles. As imaging technology advances, such observations are deepening understanding of cellular processes, with the competition's history tracing both creative photomicrography and technical progress since 1974.