Watch mesmerizing video of weird waves that 'shape life itself' inside a fly embryo

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Video of cell division occurring in a developing fly embryo named winner of the 14th annual Nikon Small World in Motion competition.

Mesmerizing microscopic footage showing "waves" inside a developing fly embryo has won the 14th annual Nikon Small World in Motion competition.

"The beauty of basic research in biology is that what we learn in one organism is often applicable to others and has the potential to contribute to the understanding of human diseases," Bruno Vellutini, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, who filmed the fly embryo, said in a statement.

Vellutini's video was chosen from among 370 entries as overall winner of the competition on Tuesday (Sept. 17).

He captured the film using light sheet microscopy, a technique in which a focused "sheet" of laser light illuminates a sample to produce high-resolution 3D images of living cells, tissues and organisms.

Vellutini's video shows cell division occurring in waves during fly embryogenesis — the process where a single-celled fertilized egg develops into a multicellular organism.

"Fruit fly embryos [that] are in our homes, developing in our kitchens and our trash bins, are undergoing the same processes as shown in the video. I believe the video is particularly impactful because it shows us how these fascinating cellular and tissue dynamics are happening every day, all around us — even in the most mundane living beings," Vellutini said.

Vellutini's video was selected as winner as it captures "mesmerizing movement within the microscopic world that helps deepen our understanding of a process that shapes life itself," panel judge Eric Flem, senior manager of communications and CRM at Nikon Instruments, said in the statement.

Hannah Osborne
Hannah Osborne
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Hannah Osborne is the planet Earth and animals editor at Live Science. Prior to Live Science, she worked for several years at Newsweek as the science editor. Before this she was science editor at International Business Times U.K. Hannah holds a master's in journalism from Goldsmith's, University of London.