Overview
- The video by Dr. Ning Xu was announced as the winner of Nikon Small World in Motion in mid-September and shows airway cilia from a child with primary ciliary dyskinesia.
- When Nikon reposted the entry on LinkedIn, microscopists flagged unusual cilia behavior and an apparent SynthID watermark and reported features that seemed to pop in and out or appear oversized.
- Xu has said AI did not create the experimental movie or cilia motion and that AI was applied afterwards to colorize and distinguish structures in reconstructed grayscale data.
- Nikon has opened a formal re-review, says Xu has provided detailed technical documentation about equipment and processing, and has not yet issued a final determination on rule violations.
- The case raises broader questions about contest enforcement, the need for access to raw microscopy data to verify findings, and potential tightening of rules and disclosure practices for AI use in scientific imaging.