Tiny image sparks big backlash in Nikon photo contest. The winning entry, a video of cilia in a child’s airways, is under scrutiny for potential AI use, raising questions about the future of scientific photography.

Dr Ning Xu, the winner from Tsinghua University, denies breaking the rules but faces criticism from other scientists who claim the video contains unnatural shapes and sizes. A former judge also raised concerns about an alleged watermark indicating AI generation.

Nikon stands by its procedures, awaiting an update. The controversy highlights the ethical challenges of integrating AI in scientific research and how it impacts recognition and credibility.

If you spend a lot of your time in a dark room looking down a microscope, it’s really nice to be able to show people and to show the public, said Dr Patrick Hickey, fifth in the 2026 Small World contest.

While the recognition the award represents means more than the $3,000 prize itself, it would be unfair on other entrants if it turned out the winning video was unfairly altered by AI. There’s a specific set of rules in the contest, and one of them was quite clearly that you couldn’t use generative AI to produce things, and the other was obviously that it has to be taken under a microscope.