Nikon International Small World Competition

A water flea (Daphnia magna) has made it into the top 10 of Nikon International Small World Competition with some help from photographer Joan Röhl.



This fantastic image is 100x magnified and was created with Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) Microscopy at the Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Germany.

Other flea entries include a 20x magnified mouse flea by Dr. Jerzy Gubernator from the University of Wroclaw, Poland and another water flea with grean algae by Dr. Ralf Wagner of Düsseldorf, Germany

Worlds Smallest Fish Tank

Anatoly Konenko has built the world's smallest aquarium.



Anatoly's other creations include writing on a grain of rice, a flea shod with horseshoes and a grass hopper playing a violin. Following the work of early miniaturists he's also chained up a beetle and fastened a lock to an ant.

He's also created over 200 books, most of them around the size of a coin and a supermini book that was less than a mm.

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures - Size Matters

The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures have been filmed earlier this month and will be shown on BBC Four on 28, 29 and 30 December at 8pm. Dr Mark Miodownik, a materials scientist from King's College London, will
explore the extraordinary world of size and scale.

There are ants mentioned in the description for the first show and I'm really hoping that there will be fleas too. If not I'll publish my own findings on why a human sized flea would not be able to jump over St Pauls in the New Year.

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It has been confirmed that there is a good flea demonstration in the lecture by Tim Cockerill. Fleas generously provided by the hedgehogs at Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital



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Two miniature museumes, Guadelest, Spain

The metro reported yesterday morning of museums in the Benidorm area of Spain. One of them was the "Micro Gigantic" in Guadelest. When I searched for more details, I discovered that there are actually two museums with miniature exhibits in Guadalest. The Micro Gigantic and the Museo de Micro Miniatures which also has a collection of interesting items.



Obviously the exhibit that attracted my attention was the Flea riding a bicycle along the edge of a seed but they have a range of other marvelous miniature exhibits. Unless there are several fleas riding bicycles in existence, I believe this one to be the creation of Willard Wigan.

A selection of paintings by Goya such as 'fusilamiento 3 de Mayo' painted on a grain of rice and 'The Naked Maja' painted on the wing of a fly. There is also a sculpture of a camel passing through the eye of a needle, a full Bible inscribed on a piece of hair and a violin scaled to be played by an ant.

Miniatures Museum: Calle Iglesia, 5
Micro-Gigantic Museum: Calle del Sol, 2

Guadalest town website
Miniature museums around Europe.
More Micromini exhibitions.
Works by Willard Wigan.

A chance to own a microscopic piece of art

The London Evening Standard is running a charity Christmas Auction for Kids Company.



One of the lots (No 21) is a unique piece of microsculpture from Willard Wigan. The Scales of Justice is perched on a pinhead, and comes with a purpose-built, wall-mounted, magnifying display cabinet. Bidding starts at £5000 and the final sale price will go to support Kids Company.

Dancing Micro Robots

Microrobots from Duke University have been dancing on the head of a pin. Perhaps their next project will be a mechanical microscopic flea circus?