A detailed cross-section of a very young beech tree, which is only one hundredth of a millimetre thick, won the 1994 Nikon International Small World Competition last month. The winner, Jean Rüegger-Deschenaux, is a retired banker and amateur photomicrographer from Zurich in Switzerland. He stained the cross-section with chrysoldine and astral-blue, and the photo is magnified 40 times.
What impressed the judges was that individual cells show up clearly because the cross-section is only one cell thick. Although prizes are awarded for technical proficiency and informational content, says Rüegger-Deschenaux, the judges liked the symmetry of the image and its quality of being “like a sun rising”.
