Commons:Wiki Science Competition 2017/Winners

Evaluation process

For more information about the selection procedure please go here.

National finalists

In this table you can find all information about national finalists (and eventually, national winners) of WSC2017.

Click on these page to know all information related to local jurors, timelines and finalists.

Algeria · Australia · Austria · Bangladesh · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Chile · China · Colombia · Czech Republic · Egypt · Estonia · France · Georgia · Germany · Greece · India · Indonesia · Iran · Iraq · Ireland · Italy · Jordan · Mexico · Oman · Philippines · Poland · Romania · Russia · Saudi Arabia · Serbia · Singapore · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Thailand · Ukraine · United Arab Emirates · United Kingdom · United States ··· The rest of the World

Second international round

The national finalists are selected in an intermediate round focused mostly on the originality and the image quality.

• For the categories processed with Montage (people in science, microscopy images and general category), only the images with more than 6 out of 10 avaraged votes are showed in this summary. All jurors gave a vote for 0.0 to 1.0 to every images.
• The other categories (non photographic media, set of images) were processed with a xls file, and a different scale was used where all the jurors gave votes 10 (best) to 1 (worst) to their first ten choices. Files that were not selected by the jurors were assigned "0.0". The average is lower than in the previous case, and the 10-12 voted choices are shown.

Like with Wiki Loves Monuments, international and national juries can show different taste, especially when some juries are small. For this reason it possible that the second finalists is evaluated better than the winners at the international level.

Winners

The final winner and 4-6 runners-up were finally selected out of a final brainstorming from the finalists after the intermediate round, with some minor rearrangement based on

• the quality of their scientific description;
• the resolution and the presence of technical and scientific details;
• specific strong criticism by jurors (e.g. very common idea);
• use on wikimedia platforms so far;
  • Featured file
  • Quality images
  • Valued file
  • Used on other wikimedia platforms
• excessive similarity to the winners and runners-up of the previous edition;
• a final balance of subjects and themes.

People in Science

• All the national finalists
• See also the category
• The most voted files by the international jury

Polar scientific diver at a French Antarctic base Polar scientific diver The exploration of the new frontier of knowledge and the role of teamwork are summarized in this beautiful image. The picture embodies the theme of scientific research in Antarctica, which is present in many of the best international finalists. This concept represents the never-ending strive for new uncharted territories of knowledge. Compared to the other images, this one goes a step further exploring the environment also under the surface, thus adding an additional step. The lack of a recognizable face is common also in other images, and can be seen as a metaphor of the unknown work that unnamed scientists perform every day. In this case this lack of recognition is however a consequence of the equipment and the action. Even if we don’t see the face of the diver, we feel however the teamwork, represented by the rope and the perfect tunnel the team had to build to dive under the ice layers. We feel the expertise of the other colleague with the camera who is also involved in the mission and being underwater cannot be perceived as a simple bystander.

International winner Erwan Amice

I am an engineer at CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) in the Marine Environmental Sciences Laboratory, that is part of the European University Institute of the Sea in Brest. I am the manager of Marine facilities and scientific diving service. I coordinate all scientific underwater sampling and the implementation of instrumentation along the French coast and as needed elsewhere (tropics, temperate or polar regions); I also manage the schedule of both of IUEM's boats. With an academic background in biology, followed by a career in the Navy as a bomb disposal expert diver, I have been employed as a scientific diver by the CNRS since 2002. My twin passions for photography and diving have naturally led me to become a specialist in underwater photography. My photographs have been used in numerous exhibitions and publications. To date, I have completed fifteen polar scientific dive missions, Arctic and Antarctic. This image of a scientific diver crossing an ice well was made on the French polar base of Dumont D'Urville in Adelie Land in Antarctica. For several years the pack ice did not give up during the austral summer, for various reasons this sea ice has accumulated, generating thicknesses of more than 3 m. Thus, to access the sampling sites provided by our protocols, it was necessary to drill the ice in the manner of oil drilling to access the open water. This passage of perfectly cylindrical sea ice and marked by a lifeline created a little anxiety for the diver during the first immersion. However, this has created an underwater atmosphere of the most graphic and original.

International runner-up		International runner-up
Camila Bravo registers and rings a Striped woodpecker. Pgarridosz		Robotics laboratories, UCL, Louvain-la-Neuve. Jacky Delorme

International runner-up		International runner-up
Weather observations on Mount Erebus. Tsy1980		Pulling out a tooth from the boy-mummy from the collections of the University of Tartu Art Museum. Ester Oras and Mait Metspalu

International runner-up		International runner-up
Inspecting the SuperDARN radar antenna installed at the Concordia research station. Paride Legovini		Student with previously cooled hand playing with methane bubbles. Scohen2017

Microscopy images

• All the national finalists
• See also the category
• The most voted files by the international jury

Section of male Ascaris, x200 magnification Section of male ascaris, x200 magnification. This image is astonishing for its colorful ensemble and neat lines, which is attractive to both children and adults, general audience and scientists. The depiction is clear and scientifically sound, as much as an infographic of a textbook, and as a result, it does not simply capture your attention, but it stimulates good scientific questions. All main organs of Ascaris spp. are visible (e.g. cytoplasmic portion of muscle cells, syncytial epidermis) and clearly defined. It's, of course, an image that should be part of an encyclopedia for its informative value, but can be used in many other activities.

International winner Massimo Brizzi

I am a self-taught macrophotography expert. Photography has been a passion of mine since I was a child and over the years I have specialized moving my skills to microscopic photography, a technique that extends the range up to 1000 magnification. In my free time, I have modified microscopes to photography as an artisan and I am probably the only one in Italy with such handcraft skills. I’d like to think I am offering the viewer a good trip in the wonders of the microcosm. My recent research has included arthropods, specifically underwood micro wildlife, and nematodes. A direct and close observation of the interaction of the micro wildlife in the underwood also allows seeing the evolutive course and the "state of health" of the woodland area. Thanks to the optical microscope I have also photographed microorganisms present in the rivers, streams, and lakes. Through my micro and macro pictures, I would like to raise awareness towards the importance of knowing and respecting this portion of nature which interacts with water and on which our future life on earth depends.

International runner-up		International runner-up
Castle (0.2 mm x 0.3 mm x 0.4 mm) 3D-printed on a pencil tip via multiphoton lithography. Peter Gruber		Scanning electron micrograph of Ebola virus particles (green). John Bernbaum

International runner-up		International runner-up
Thin layer of water ice that is two inches across. The ice was between crossed polarizing filters. Tom Wagner		Glowing lacewing eggs. Sutirtha.ray

International runner-up		International runner-up
Processed electron image of titanium dioxide nanotubes obtained by anodization of titanium metal. Robert Kamalov, Irina Dorosheva, Alexander Vokhmintsev, Ilya Weinstein		Indium-gallium nitride semiconductor alloy. FDominec

Non-photographic media

• All the national finalists
• See also the category
• The most voted files by the international jury

Frozen drop of water in a very cold environment Frozen drop of water at approximately -180 degrees Celsius. In a category where many finalists were equally appreciated for their technical features, this video was preferred because of its simplicity. It reminds the concept of phase transition, a basic physico-chemical phenomenon taught in schools, which is here presented under a different perspective. The technical expertise is present in the very low -180 °C temperature. Such information about the temperature pushes the viewer to rethink what he saw and compare with the more standard phase transitions occurring in every day’s life.

International winner Maxim Bilovitskiy

I always enjoyed chemistry, as well as many physical processes. At the end of 2016, I conducted experiments with liquid nitrogen, and I wondered how the water behaved on the surface of a cold copper plate that was in a foam box with liquid nitrogen. At first, the water just froze very quickly, but when it reached a certain height I began to notice that the frozen water began to become covered with beautiful ice crystals. This process is most likely caused by the presence of a large amount of water vapor in the air at the temperature boundary. The video was made on a 90mm macro lens with side illumination.

International runner-up		International runner-up
Low energy X-rays (mastography) are used to control the quality of farmed perch. Mariusnicolini		A water drop released onto a superhydrophobic surface bounces 22 times. Pablo F Ibáñez Ibáñez, Guillermo Paz Gómez

International runner-up		International runner-up
A rhythm of ciliated cell in the nasal mucosa. Matteo Gelardi		Merging of a Milky Way-like galaxy with satellite. Example of Chandrasekhar friction. Igor Zinchenko

International runner-up		International runner-up
Thermocam infrared images of instrumentalists for ergonomic studies. DrTrumpet		Differential-interference contrast of protozoan Loxophyllum meleagris. Alexander Klepnev

Image sets

• All the national finalists
• See also the category
• The most voted sets by the international jury

Microscopic images of bacteria and molds grown in food meat cereals diary products flour ground Food is a universal topic and a good starting point to catch the attention of a viewer. So is art. The images highlight the extraordinary beauty of the microbial world essential to our survival. Without it there would be no life, neither vegetal nor animal. We are surrounded by bacteria and molds that in silence transform our food but also transform matter into works of art. As a result, these images are not only scientifically accurate and clear, they are also very versatile for education, outreach and even citizen science. They show the nature of microorganisms, the complexity of the ecosystem, the challenges of hygiene in food production.

International winner Stefania Rizzelli

I'm a Bio Artist and I deal with chemical and microbiological analysis on food in a laboratory based in my hometown, Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, considered by many to be the heart of Northern Italian food districts. My - peculiar - art consists in capturing the fascinating world of microbes and impressing them on photographic prints destined to scientific - and artistic - dissemination. I find the art of nature simply fascinating for its spontaneity and the ability to communicate in an amazing way. When I first started my actual job, my enthusiasm was so palpable that I almost immediately thought in developing a scientific project associated with art that “could be eaten”. With my microbiological experience I began to experiment with various foods such as dairy products, cereals, meats, etc., photographing everything that the bacteria themselves created. After about two years of research, with a careful selection of almost 500 shots of various bacterial species, I started the project "The invisible art of bacteria", with the aim to talk about the importance of the microbial world. This project tries to overcome the prejudicial description of microorganisms as enemies, proposing a positive and proactive approach that unfolds both on the scientific side and on the artistic side, underlining the crucial importance that the bacteria take on human, animal and plant life. In December 2017, during a search on Wikipedia, through a banner, I became aware of the "Wiki Science Competition": it has been a great opportunity to spread my project all over the world!.

International runner-up		International runner-up
Evolution of a tornado. JasonWeingart		Liquid crystal textures. Alexprague

International runner-up		International runner-up
Vitamin C Vitamin C Vitamin C Vitamin C Hematoxylin Scar collagen Mosaic virus
Microscope images with polarized light. PW31		Seeds of various plants. Alexander Klepnev

International runner-up		International runner-up
		Cassiterite Lherzolite Cordierite Small mica fish in a mylonitic quartzite Staurolite Aegirine Aegirine
Bridge cells. Kiwenga@alice.it		Petrographic images of rocks and minerals. Alessandro Da Mommio

General category

• All the finalists
• See also the category
• The most voted files by the international jury

Satellite image of algal bloom in the Kakhovka reservoir Satellite image of the phenomenon of "algal bloom" at the Kakhovka reservoir territory. The concept of sustainable development and the delicate interaction of human beings and ecosystems (particularly those belonging to oceans) have become key issues in the last decades and such topics resonate nowadays with the general public. In this image, the factor influencing the phenomenon of algal bloom is presented together with clear scientific information. In its apparent simplicity, it captures an inherently complex process and through its caption it also introduces the reader to detailed levels of understanding. More specifically, this picture shows, on one hand, an algal bloom in a closed water body and, on the other hand, the human activities of the surrounding area. The magnitude and frequency of phytoplankton blooms have increased globally in recent decades, as shown in data from ocean-color sensors on-board satellites. Since satellite and airborne measurements represent an effective way for detecting and monitoring phytoplankton by its proxy, chlorophyll-a (the green pigment that is present in all algae), the image reminds us also of the core role of infrastructures in scientific research. Modern ecology is characterised by a strong interdisciplinary approach that needs information retrieved from space especially for understanding large scale problems that wouldn’t be visible otherwise.

International winner Olha Tomchenko

I am a research fellow at the Scientific Centre for Aerospace Research of the Earth in Ukraine, and I explore water ecosystems using methods of remote sensing of Earth. My admiration of space images started when I first saw amazing pictures of our planet in the book Earth As Art, published by NASA. I was so impressed that it became the interest of my life. In 2014, while working on my PhD, I was lucky to analyse remote data on water bodies in Ukraine, including observations on the algal bloom at the water reservoirs of the Dnieper River. This natural anomaly is directly caused by the global warming, a number one problem for the humankind. I hope that the image itself is good enough to touch everyone's heart and to attract attention of humanity to the problem of climate change.

International runner-up		International runner-up
Frozen soap bubble. Larry-pilot		Emission-line filtered image of the Carina nebula. Ivan Bok

International runner-up		International runner-up
Dorcus parallelipipedus (female). Sebastián J.L		Lidar measurement from a shelter in Dome C, a few hundreds of meters from the Concordia research station. Paride Legovini

International runner-up		International runner-up
Solar eclipse of August 21st, 2017 in Wyoming. Michael S. Adler the image contained a mistake		Biodiversity at French scientific base. Diplulmaris antarctica. Erwan Amice