Beijing — Tsinghua Engineer Wins Nikon's Small World in Motion Contest

Ning Xu, an optical engineer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, has won Nikon's 2026 Small World in Motion competition for a super-resolution video showing the abnormal beating of airway cilia in a child with a rare genetic respiratory disorder, according to Ars Technica. The video beat 346 other entries from 40 countries.

What did Ning Xu's video show?

The footage depicts cilia — the hairlike structures lining human airways — beating irregularly in a child diagnosed with Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia, or PCD. "To understand this disease, you need to observe around 10 seconds of motion, not just a still image," Xu said, according to Ars Technica. "When people watch cilia beating, they immediately understand that something beautiful and important is happening inside us. I think this competition turns microscopy into a shared language."

How did he capture cells that small in motion?

Xu used diffractive super-resolution microscopy, a technique that combines multiple light waves with a digital micromirror to precisely shape the illumination reaching the sample. The method minimizes light exposure to living tissue while still resolving rapid cilia movement at high resolution — a requirement for studying a disorder defined by how structures move, not just how they look. Because the sample must remain alive, many higher-intensity techniques and fluorescent dyes were not options, per Ars Technica's report.

What is Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia?

PCD is a genetic disorder that disrupts the normal function of cilia lining the lungs and other organs. Healthy cilia move in a coordinated wave to clear mucus, dust and germs from the airways, allowing the body to expel them through coughing or sneezing. In people with PCD, cilia may be malformed, missing, or unable to move properly, letting irritants accumulate and leading to repeated respiratory infections, Ars Technica reported.

Who else placed in this year's contest?

Nguyen Nam Nhat of Vietnam took second place with a video of a roundworm alongside a single-celled organism. Benedikt Pleyer of Bavaria, Germany, placed third with footage of jellyfish larvae, according to the competition results cited by Ars Technica.

How long has Nikon run this competition?

Nikon launched its still-photography Small World Photomicrography Competition in 1974. The video spinoff, Small World in Motion, followed in 2011 as advances in photovideography made it possible to capture microscopic subjects moving in real time rather than frozen in a single frame. Both contests share the same stated purpose: showcasing "the beauty and complexity of things seen through the light microscope," Nikon's competition materials state, as referenced by Ars Technica. This year's field of 347 video submissions from 40 countries reflects how widely the imaging tools have spread beyond dedicated microscopy labs into applied medical research like Xu's work on PCD.

For Xu, the win doubles as a case study in how emerging optical engineering techniques can make normally invisible disease mechanisms legible to non-specialists — turning a rare pediatric respiratory disorder into ten seconds of footage a general audience can watch and immediately understand.