Time-Lapse Video of Growing Quail Wins First Prize in Nikon's 'Small World' Competition [Videos]

A time-lapse video of a developing quail embryo has fetched a Portuguese scientist the first prize in Nikon's 2013 Small World in Motion Competition.

The video by Gabriel G. Martins, a researcher at Portugal's University of Lisbon, shows the journey of a baby quail. Martins stitched over 1,000 images to create a 3D reconstruction of the embryo.

The baby measures less than an inch and the video captures its growth over a ten-day period, Livescience reported.

The video was made using a technique called optical tomography. The method uses optical wavelengths and not X-rays to image the specimen, nbcnews reported.

The video competition shows that scientific images have artistic value. Some of the techniques used to capture and construct the images also advance scientific research. 

"These videos embrace the very spirit of this competition, which aims to remind us all that cutting-edge science and imaging are not only happening every day, but can be artistically intriguing as well," said Eric Flem, Communications and CRM manager for Nikon Instruments, according to a news release.

The second prize was won by Michael Weber of The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Germany. His video showed the beating heart of zebrafish. Light sheet fluorescence microscopy was used to reconstruct the heart that is about 250 micrometers or a little wider than a human hair.

A video showing inner details of a mitochondria in a cancer cell won the third prize. The video was made by Dr. Lin Shao of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus.

A close-up shot of a corkscrew shaped photoplankton and an image of zebrafish's blood-brain barrier have won the Nikon's Small World photo contest in the past, Livescience reported. The Photomicrography Competition is open to anyone interested in microscopy and photography. The winners of the 2013 video contest were awarded $ 3000 worth equipment from Nikon, according to Livescience.

All videos courtesy of Nikon Small World/ Youtube.