Picture for science: Scanned on the Sapphire Biomolecular Imager from Azure
- 3.5 Minutes to read
- Written by Michèle Heidemeyer
- Life Science
The Swiss winning picture of the "Wiki Science Photo Competition 2019 Switzerland" in the category non-photographic media comes from Axonlab
"Share your knowledge with others" (Dalai Lama). According to this insight, knowledge has been made available to everyone around the world for years. Thanks to many volunteers all people in the world today can inform themselves and acquire knowledge free of charge by simply researching on Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia.
Wikipedia enables open access to information and thus provides an excellent stage for scientific competition.
The Wiki Science Competition (WSC) is an international photo competition that aims to freely share scientific images with the world. By collecting and freely sharing these photos, science becomes accessible to everyone.
The competition is held in six different categories:
- People in Science
- Microscopy Images
- Non-photographic Media
- Image Sets
- Wildlife and Nature
- General category.
While 9793 images were submitted across Europe in 2015, by 2017 the number had risen to over 10 000.
The competition is held every two years and in 2019 Axonlab was one of the participants. In collaboration with Azure Biosystems we participated in the national Wiki Science Competition 2019 Switzerland.
With the image "honeydew melon", a laser scan of a honeydew melon on the Sapphire Biomolecular Imager, Axonlab took first place in the category Non-photographic media! The image of the watermelon impressively shows how science can be used to bring out the beauty of an otherwise rather inconspicuous fruit.
All winners will receive a prize of 500 CHF - Axonlab will donate this money to the Simply Science Foundation, which aims to promote an understanding of scientific and technical issues among children and young people and to inform them about possible training and career opportunities.
However, winning first place does not mean that the exciting competition is over. The winners of the national Wiki Science Competition 2019 will automatically take part in the international awards ceremony and the "Picture of the year" competition. So we are eagerly awaiting how the race for the best scientific picture will continue and whether our honeydew melon will be thirsty?