RSB Name Photographer and Young Photographer 2017
17 year old Dheeraj Nanda received the RSB Young Photographer of the Year Prize for his submission ‘Coleman on Fire’, which captured the symbiotic relationship between the Coleman Shrimp and the Fire Urchin in Indonesia.
“It’s a great honour to win the Young Photographer of the Year award said Dheeraj on receiving the title. Being an underwater photographer, I have always loved shooting tiny critters of the sea. Hence, this year’s theme – ‘Hidden World’ – made this competition more exciting to me.
“There are plenty of macroscopic critters beneath the sea surface and they never cease to impress us. I’ve always felt that these (tiny) creatures should not be unnoticed and showcasing their images in these events would do justice for their beauty.
“I would like to thank the RSB for this opportunity and this is for sure a lot of encouragement for my work.”
Welcome to my humble abode by Duncan McNaught, taken in Galloway, South Scotland. Credit:DMcNaught/RSB
Announcing the winners of their Photographic Competition 2017 during Biology Week, the Royal Society of Biology (RSB) judges faced a huge task of narrowing down over 600 entries to a shortlist for the two categories. During the RSB Annual Awards Ceremony at The Hatton London, Duncan McNaught was presented with the prestigious title of RSB Photographer of the Year for his picture taken of the often overlooked world of fungi and insects ‘Welcome to my humble abode’.
Coleman on Fire by Dheeraj Nanda (17) taken in Ambon, Maluku, Indonesia. The Coleman Shrimp can be spotted seeking refuge among the spines of the urchin, the female being the bigger of the two. Credit:
D.Nanda/RSB
“I’m highly delighted and honoured my image was selected, the competition was high and I appreciate the diffi culty the judges must have had in choosing the winner,” said Duncan at the presentation event. “I feel proud to have been part of this year’s competition and look forward to sharing my amazing news with my family and friends in Scotland.”
The entries featured a wide variety of species from countries and habitats as far as Indonesia and Madagascar, ranging from microscopic insights into the development of frogspawn, to the incredible emerald hues of an Indian Lake photographed from 30,000 ft.
The annual Photographer of the Year Competition is open to amateur photographers aged 18 and over, with a top prize of £1000. The Young Photographer of the Year Competition is open to amateur photographers (under 18) and carries a top prize of £500.
More information from
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Registration for elmi2018 is live
New Style Optical Traps Bring Step-Change to Future Research
Researchers at Dundee University have come up with a new way of creating optical traps – tightly focused laser beams that can confi ne and manipulate microscopic objects such as cells, bacteria and strands of DNA - using holographic beam-shaping to deploy such traps for the fi rst time through hair-thin optical fi bres capable of penetrating safely through living tissues. The ultra narrow optical fi bre will enable researchers to access hidden cavities or introduce traps deep inside living organisms without causing any major damage even to the most sensitive tissues.
Registration for places at the 2018 meeting of the European Light Microscopy Initiative taking place in Dublin, 5-8 June, is now open with early bird rates available until 2 April.
As the PCO for elmi2018, the Royal Microscopical Society (RMS), is pleased to be able to offer options with and without accommodation and at a generous discounted rate for students.
elmi2018 will present the latest research and developments in light microscopy through a unique mix of invited and submitted lectures and workshops provided by exhibiting companies. This great combination of academia and industry leads to insights into future avenues for research or useful extras or inspiration for equipment. The Keynote speaker will be Professor Scott E. Fraser with his talk entitled ‘Eavesdropping on Biological Processes with Multi-Dimensional Molecular Imaging’.
On top of this, elmi2018 will provide networking opportunities with events including poster sessions, a football match and a banquet dinner during the meeting. University College Dublin will be offering accommodation for those wishing to stay onsite, which means the buzz and discussions from the meeting can continue beyond the end of the day. The University is about a half hour taxi ride from Dublin City Centre.
For details visit
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The new class of multimode fi bres developed by the team, which feature previously unattainable levels of light concentration necessary for stable confi nement of micro objects, also enables the positioning of multiple laser traps with nanometre precision.
With a footprint being as small as 35 µm in diameter (about half the thickness of a human hair), the instrument can be used to demonstrate the manipulation of micro-objects within a turbid cavity inaccessible to bulk optics.
A paper* describing the study, which was conducted in collaboration with colleagues from Germany and the Czech Republic, was authored by Dundee scientists Ivo Jorge Oliveira Teixeira Leite, Sergey Nikolayevich Turtaev, Professor Sir Alfred Cuschieri and Professor Tomáš ižmár.
“Just like the proton packs used by the Ghostbusters, optical traps confi ne and manipulate objects, only remotely from the complexity of living organisms,” said Professor ižmár. “To the
best of our knowledge, this work is the fi rst demonstration of three-dimensional confi nement and manipulation of micro-objects by light via an optical fi bre, which opens the door to exciting exploitations of optical traps in-vivo.
“This represents a step-change for future research because the primary application of optical traps is the study of intracellular machineries, which are overactive in cancer and for which a new generation of anti-cancer drugs are being developed. Now we can study these processes in the environment of complex living tissue and organisms rather than artifi cial conditions.”
Professor Cuschieri added, “While there are no immediate implications for health practice so far, there is signifi cant potential for better understanding of mechanical actions of biological molecules. Thanks to optical tweezers, we now have a much better idea about functions of muscles at molecular level as well as genetic processes and their disruptions.
”Now we have the chance to access real depths of living organisms and without affecting the processes of life, perform elaborate studies of mechano-chemistry at the single molecule level, all in its natural environment.”
For details and videos of the traps at work visit
www.dundee.ac.uk *Published in Nature Photonics
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Summer Studentships 2018
Applications are open for the RMS summer studentships which were developed for undergraduate students, typically moving into their third or fourth year, to complete a microscopy project during their summer break, providing them with invaluable experience to add to their CV.
Online submissions must include a signifi cant microscopy component and should come from a suitable host academic on behalf of a student. Six studentships of £2000 are on offer: three for life sciences and three for physical sciences.
Send all your News stories to:
heather@intlabmate.com
Previous projects have ranged from developing SEM data capture methodologies, software modelling and 3D printing techniques at the Natural History Museum to using a novel atomic force microscopy measurement tool to investigate the effect of curvature for a promising tool in nanomedicine.
One project mentor commented “Last year’s RMS studentship recipient has since been offered and accepted a PhD position in Cambridge, partly thanks to the highly successful project that they were able complete with the studentship and that played a big role in them being offered the position. This clearly demonstrates to me how much the studentship makes a difference to the career of students.”
Do you have a high-fl ying student who would relish the opportunity to complete a funded summer project? Visit
www.rms.org.uk to submit an application online. Applications will close at the end of February 2018.
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