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 rat tubule specimen taken with modified darkfield illumination.

Seminiferous Tubules in Transgenic Rat Original Magnification: 18.7x Specimen: X-gal stained wet mount Technique: Modified Darkfield

The shadowing effect described in the cultured root tip specimen with brightfield, can also be applied to darkfield. Because of this relatively thick, translucent specimen, the light from a darkfield technique gives the best illumination to show these seminiferous tubules. However, the lighting is rather flat and doesn't show the roundness of the tubules without the added shadowing caused by offsetting the darkfield stop to produce a more directional, oblique illumination. This photomicrograph won 15th place in the 1996 Small World competition.