Photomicrographer James E. Hayden, RBP has been a consistent winner of the Small World competition for many years. Featured below is a photomicrograph of a canine adnexal nevus specimen taken with darkfield illumination.

Canine Adnexal Nevus Original Magnification: 39x Specimen: Hematoxylin and Eosin Section Technique: Darkfield Illumination

When I first came upon this section through a nevus (mole) in a section of dog skin, I was immediately struck by my first interpretation of a bubble rising through the structure. When viewed in darkfield, it was even more striking. When the slides were processed, I realized that there also appeared to be a face in my image, with the nose pointed to the right, the chin at the bottom and the eye being the top right "bubble" while the middle "bubble" turned into a cheek. I showed it to someone else and asked if they saw the face in the picture and they immediately said yes - it had a pure black, round eye on the left side and it appeared to be breathing fire out of it's open mouth to the lower left. I finally realized that I had the microscopical equivalent of a cubist painting, reminiscent of Picasso. Art and Science never seemed closer. This photomicrograph was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 1992 Small World competition.