NEWS FROM THE EMBO COMMUNITY Mollusc and mosquito Winner Best Scientific Image by Martin Oeggerli: Water-repellent network on the surface of a mosquito egg (from Culex pipiens). Winner Best Non-Scientific Image by Eric Röttinger: A representative of the Lima genus: bivalve molluscs that swim by clapping their shells together. The winners of The EMBO Journal Cover Contest 2012 are MARTIN OEGGERLI for best scientific image and ERIC RÖTTINGER for best non-scientific image. possible to better present the filigree tentacles of the Lima species, whose natural living environment is a sandy terrain. Eric is also the co-founder of the non-profit organization Kahi Kai (‘one ocean’ in native Hawai’ian) and has a profound interest in protecting the fascinating and highly endangered marine world. Visit www.kahikaiimages. com if you would like to see more amazing portraits of sea creatures. This year, more than 1500 images were submitted to this annual contest. The winning images were published on the front cover of both April issues of The EMBO Journal. To view the winning images and a gallery of the shortlisted pictures visit: http://covercontest.embo.org/Winners_2012.html An image showing a water-repellent network on the surface of a mosquito egg (from Culex pipiens) won the scientific category. “Mosquito eggs are as much revolutionary as they are evolutionary – they are so fascinating, you think you must be dreaming,” says science photographer Oeggerli. The highest scores in the non-scientific category were for an image of a bivalve mollusc that swims by clapping its shells together. “Our goal is to highlight the beauty, elegance and fragility of the marine organisms,” says Röttinger who works on marine invertebrates at the Kewalo Marine Laboratory in Hawai’i, USA. For his photo shootings he normally uses a miniature studio with a black or white background and combines it with an aquarium. In this case, the black background made it Editorial Managing Editor Barry Whyte Editor Yvonne Kaul Proofreading Meryl Schneider Print layout Uta Mackensen Web version Aditya Kusuma Jati E-newsletter Sandra Krahl, Katja Linssen Next issue The next EMBOencounters issue – Autumn 2012 – will be dispatched in October 2012. Please send your suggestions, contributions and news, to communications@embo.org by 17 September 2012. ©2012 EMBO EMBOencounters | Summer 2012 | communications@embo.org 17 © Martin Oeggerli © Credit Eric Röttinger