Photomicrography Competition

Nikon strips AI-tainted entry of Small World in Motion win, names new victor

Nikon disqualified Ning Xu's winning Small World in Motion video of cilia after an investigation found it violated competition rules regarding AI use, following researcher complaints about anomalies and apparent AI watermarks in source files. Nguyen Nam Nhat of Vietnam, whose video shows a roundworm and a single-celled organism, has been named the new winner, with other finalists moving up one place.

arstechnica.com · 2026-10-09

Tsinghua engineer Ning Xu wins Nikon Small World in Motion for cilia video

Ning Xu, an optical engineer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, won Nikon's 2023 Small World in Motion competition with a super-resolution video capturing the abnormal beating of airway cilia in a child with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD). His entry topped 346 submissions from 40 countries in the contest, which is a video-focused offshoot of Nikon's long-running Small World Photomicrography Competition.

arstechnica.com · 2026-09-18