A child’s airway has revealed a hidden world in motion, and Ning Xu of Tsinghua University captured it with extraordinary precision. Xu won the 2026 Nikon Small World in Motion video contest after recording abnormal cilia movement linked to Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia, a rare respiratory disorder.
The winning video does more than show a microscopic structure. It turns a crucial biological process into something viewers can watch unfold, making the disease visible through movement that a still image could never capture.
Why These Tiny Movements Matter
Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia, or PCD, is a genetic disorder that affects the tiny hairlike structures lining the lungs. These structures, called cilia, help move germs, mucus, dust, and other irritants through the airways so the body can remove them by coughing or sneezing.
That cleaning system depends on coordinated motion. In people with PCD, cilia may have the wrong size or shape, may be missing, may move abnormally, or may not move at all. Each change can alter how the airways handle material that the body needs to dispel.
That is why video matters so much when researchers study PCD. A still image can show the presence of cilia, but it cannot show whether they beat together, move abnormally, or remain motionless. Xu captured the action that carries the clearest evidence.
“To understand this disease, you need to observe around 10 seconds of motion, not just a still image,” Xu said.
The Microscopy Behind the Winning Video
Xu used diffractive super-resolution microscopy to record the cilia. The technique employs multiple light waves and a digital micromirror, allowing researchers to minimize the light reaching the sample while capturing rapid cilia movement at high resolution.
That combination solves a demanding imaging problem. The cilia move quickly, yet the sample must remain suitable for observation as the microscope records the action. The technique preserves the motion needed to understand the disease while producing a high-resolution view of structures too small to see without microscopy.
The result gives viewers a direct look at abnormal movement inside a child’s airways. The video connects a genetic disorder to a physical process, showing how a problem at the scale of tiny hairlike structures can affect the body’s ability to clear germs, mucus, dust, and other irritants.
Xu described the broader power of that view in a second quote: “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.”
A Competition Built Around Motion
The Nikon Small World in Motion competition is sponsored by Nikon and was founded in 2011. It is a spinoff of the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition, which has been around since 1974.
This year’s winning entry rose above 346 other video entries from 40 different countries. The competition’s top five winners were Ning Xu in first place, Nguyen Nam Nhat in second, Benedikt Pleyer in third, Andrew Moore in fourth, and Patrick Hickey in fifth.
The contest gives microscopic video a powerful role: it can turn complex research into an image that people understand at once. In Xu’s entry, the subject is not only the structure of cilia but the rhythm, timing, and coordination that reveal whether those structures are working as they should.
That distinction makes the 2026 winner especially compelling. The video does not simply magnify a hidden part of the body; it shows a biological system performing its job, then shows what abnormal movement looks like when that system is affected by PCD.
Published Sep 16, 2026, 10:00 AM ET, the announcement places Xu’s work at the center of a contest that continues to connect advanced microscopy with public understanding. The listed date is Sep 18, 2026 9:56 am.
Ten seconds of motion can change how viewers understand a rare disease. With cilia beating on screen, PCD becomes more than a medical term: it becomes a visible pattern of movement, captured at the scale where the disorder takes shape.
Based on
- Meet the winner of Nikon’s Small World in Motion video contest — arstechnica.com
- Astonishing footage of abnormal cell movement in lungs wins 2026 Nikon video microscopy prize | CNN — cnn.com
- Meet the winner of Nikon’s Small World in Motion video contest | Ars OpenForum — arstechnica.com
- The winners of Nikon’s microscopic video competition. | The Verge — theverge.com
