“Finding beauty in science: the stunning images of the Swiss National Science Foundation Science Image Competition”

From the transparent belly of a frog to the regeneration of the head of a decapitated animal. These are some of the daily routines that go into research work, presented from unusual perspectives by winners of the 2023 Swiss National Science Foundation Science Image Contest.

This content was published on May 20, 2023

20 mayo 2023

Ying Zhang

When we think of the work that people in science do every day, scenes of people wearing lab coats repeating experiments or giving lectures loaded with scientific terms often come to mind. But those who do science also observe the everyday with curiosity and insight, and are able to find beauty and meaning even in their objects of study. The best photographs taken by scientists at Swiss universities and research institutes give us a glimpse of this world.

An international jury assembled by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has recently unveiled the names of the winners of the annual science imaging contest. (Science Image Competitionexternal link).

For her photo of the belly of a frog, Francesca Angiolani-Larrea, a PhD student at the University of Bern who studies amphibian ecology and evolution, won first prize in the “Object of study” category.

Parental care in amphibians takes various forms. It is the case of the Hyalinobatrachium valerioi, a type of glass frog with a transparent belly. It is up to the mother to select the best partner and produce the eggs; while the father stays with his young and cares for them, sometimes up to seven clutches of eggs at a time.

To take the photo, Angiolani-Larrea turned to a common piece of laboratory equipment, a transparent petri dish. In this way, she shows her object of study from a “surprising new perspective”, in the words of the jury.

First prize in the “Women and Men of Science” category went to Mariafrancesca Petrucci, a doctoral student in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Bern. In this case, she with her self-portrait next to a small pig to which she listens to her heart. Petrucci explains that the research project he carried out on pain and its characteristics in animals made him realize that “the life and health of animals, people and other living beings are just as important, and that you must ensure the highest level of care for everyone, wherever they are.”

For the jury, his kind gesture and the warm colors of the image “contrast gently with the often controversial issue of animal testing. And they brilliantly express emotions that are rarely associated with science.”

In the “Places and Instruments” category, Rafael Barmak, a PhD assistant at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), convinced the jury with a close-up of a bee colony residing in a robotic device that can interact with bees. bees. This helps to investigate their behavior and potentially support them in an increasingly hostile environment.

For the jury, the image “transports us to a new biohybrid world where the natural meets the artificial.”

A visualization of the vortices created by an airplane wing filmed by Cyprien de Sepibus, a PhD student at the Geneva School of Landscape, Engineering and Architecture (HES-SO) and EPFL, has been the winner of the “Loops” category. Of video”. The video impressed the jury for “magically making the invisible visible”.

The jury has also awarded fifteen distinctions or mentions. More than ever. Here are some examples:

This labyrinthine photo from a supercomputing simulation reveals the inner world of the human vision system and its complex organic structure, showing how cerebrospinal fluid flows around the optic nerve.

Angiolani-Larrea and her colleagues are studying how sociality and ecology influence the learning ability of small reptiles such as lizards. In the experiment a lizard has to learn where the food is in a maze placed vertically or horizontally.

This photo was taken before surgery began on a pig to test whether a novel blood vessel graft could improve life expectancy and quality of life in patients. The pig lies where a human patient was supposed to be, underscoring the sacrifice of the animal to improve people’s health care.

I made a head nueva —by Yamini Ravichandran, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Geneva—has been awarded a distinction in the “Video Loops” category.

This video follows —throughout four days— the regeneration of the head of a decapitated small adult hydra. The resistance of this humble creature promises advances in regenerative medicine.

Distinction in the category “Video loops” to Simulation of tumor growthby Roman Vetter, a scientist at the ETH (Federal School of Technology Zurich).

The animation shows a malignant tumor growing from one cell to a million cells. This reflects a surprising and uncontrollable growth of cancer proliferation.

All images and videos submitted to the contest can be seen on this online galleryexternal link.

The winning images and videos of this year’s contest are displayed in the Bienne Photography Festivalexternal link Until may 28th.

Edited by Sabrina Weiss and Veronica DeVore

Text adapted from English by Lupe Calvo

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