Winner Physics Image Award is Volkskrant Image of the Week
Vera Meester has won the annual Physics Image Award 2016, with her photo of 'smiling' colloids. The Volkskrant published the picture as Image of the Week.
PhD student Vera Meester receives the first prize at the Ehrenfest colloquium on December 7th. Her winning picture will get an honorary spot on the 1st floor of the Oort building, and has been selected as Image of the Week by the Volkskrant. Check out below the top 3 of the Physics Image Award 2016.
Winner
Vera Meester
Scanning electron microscopy image of micron-sized particles, so-called colloids, with a smiley face on one side of the sphere. The particles are made by solidifying soft spheres, which induces buckling of the outside of the shell resulting in dents. In this particular case, the dents form smiley faces on al particles! These particles are used in self-assembly experiments to obtain larger structures with novel physical properties.
Runner-up
Casper van der Wel
Lipid membranes mediate a force between membrane proteins. In this confocal microscopy image, six spherical lipid membranes together with many 0.001 mm sized particles can be seen. Several of these particles are attached to the membranes: these particles attract each other through the membrane deformation they induce.
Third place
Martin de Wit
Optical microscope image of a detection chips covered with silicon nitride used for Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM), a technique in which we detect signals from a small number of spins using a mechanical resonator. The horizontal line is the RF-wire, used for the generation of magnetic fields to manipulate the spins in the sample, while the two small squares in the center are used to inductively detect the motion of the resonator. The visible colored rings are the result of the gradually reducing thickness of the silicon nitride layer.