the winning image in the photographic competition that forms part of celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

This image of a live Drosophila larva in a water droplet has won the photographic competition that forms part of celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Winner Robert Markus, of the Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged, received the award at a ceremony on 25 February in Amsterdam.

The jury was chaired by KNAW president Frits van Oostrom, and included Dutch scientists and journalists as well as Nature's editor-in-chief Philip Campbell. It selected Hemocyte Compartments of the Drosophila Larva (In Vivo — Live Drosophila Larva in a Drop of Water) as the best portrayal of the 'magic of science', the bicentenary's theme.

Markus took his photograph to show how blood cells affect the fruitfly's immune system. “By identifying blood-cell-specific genes, we can generate transgenic Drosophila strains in which the blood cells express green fluorescent protein, so that they are visualized in vivo, making in vivo research possible on the immune system,” he explained.

KNAW's bicentenary celebrations (http://www.knaw200.nl) include talks, exhibitions and guided tours of the academy's Trippenhuis Building headquarters. They also feature a mass experiment on human 'waves' propagating through a crowd of soccer fans in Rotterdam's Kuip Stadium (the team FC Feyenoord celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2008) and a tour bus taking science to schools.