Photo Contest IV: Finalists, Lab Rats

By Matt Young

We received approximately 30 photographs from 14 photographers. Most of the pictures were excellent. We divided the entries into 2 categories, Lab Rats and General, though we had to fudge a little bit to populate both categories.

Choosing finalists was difficult. We considered what we thought were the scientific and pictorial qualities of the photographs, and also attempted to represent as many photographers and present as much variety as possible. The text was written by the photographers and lightly edited for consistency.

Here are the finalists in the Lab Rats category. Please look through them before voting for your favorite. You will have to be logged in to vote on the poll. We know it is possible to game these polls. Please be responsible and vote only once. If we think that the results are invalid, we will cancel the contest. The photos and poll are below the fold.

The winner in each category will receive an autographed copy of Among the Creationists, by Jason Rosenhouse, which received a very favorable review here. We are indebted to the author for his generosity in providing the books.

Acknowledgement: Reed Cartwright wrote the HTML code.

  • New species of orchids of the genus Teagueia, by Lou Jost—Volcan Tungurahua, Ecuador. The photographer and his students discovered a remarkable and completely unexpected evolutionary radiation of these plants, with up to 16 sympatric new species on a single mountain.
  • Two-headed Xenopus laevis tadpole generated by the injection of RNA encoding plakoglobin (g-catenin) into a fertilized egg, by Mike Klymkowsky. The melanocytes are contracted and extended pigment distributions in the two axes. More information.
  • Banded iron formation—Jasper Knob, Ishpeming, Michigan, Proterozoic eon, ~2.11 Ga, by James Kocher. Kodachrome 64, August, 1992.
  • E. coli by Ryan Kitko.—On the right, a test tube with Escherichia coli that appear green because they contain a plasmid to produce green fluorescent protein (GFP). The middle test tube contains the same bacteria but appears cloudy because it is missing the inducer arabinose. The left test tube is a control containing only growth medium.
  • Light bulb imploding inward, demonstrating that the pressure inside the bulb is less than atmospheric pressure, by Steve Switaj. Photograph was taken ~30 years ago on Kodacolor 100 with two flash units and an exposure of approximately 1/40,000 s.