2025 Small World in Motion Competition

The 2025 Small World in Motion first-place prize was awarded to retired engineer-turned-microscopist Jay McClellan for his striking video capturing the self-pollination of a thymeleaf speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia). The process demonstrates the resilience found in nature, revealing one of the hidden strategies select species of plants use to adapt and survive.

McClellan's work fuses decades of experience in industrial machine vision system development with a passion for microscopy and photography, resulting in videos that are both mesmerizing and informative. His winning video captures a tiny blue blossom opening to the morning sun, its stamens elongating until one curls toward the pistil, dusting the stigma with pollen and completing self-pollination. “This isn’t some exotic plant you’d need to travel the world to find. It’s a common ‘weed’ that might be growing right under your feet,” said McClellan. “I love the idea that anyone could discover beauty like this if they just looked closely.”

Thymeleaf speedwells bloom quickly and unpredictably, meaning filming such a fleeting biological process required a perfect storm of preparation, timing, and technique. To capture the video, McClellan had to anticipate movements and program a custom motion-control system to keep the reproductive structures perfectly in frame. He also employed advanced focus-stacking techniques to maintain crystal clarity across focal planes, a challenge that led him to develop his own hardware and software for microscopic video. “I may capture many terabytes of raw footage for a single shot,” he explained. “Running the focus-stacking overnight is like waiting for Christmas morning — you never know whether you’ll get a disappointment or something amazing.”

McClellan emphasized the honor he feels to be among the many talented individuals who have participated in Nikon Small World for over five decades, and the importance of bringing the microscopic world to light: “The best part for me is not winning a prize but getting the opportunity to share my work with the world and let people see microscopic wonders in a new way.”