This impressive photo by Christina and Manfred P. Kage won the photographic competition “Picture of Research 2006” in the category “Fascination of Research”. The competition was run by the news magazine FOCUS and the Association of Researching Drug Manufacturers.

The “Picture of Research 2006” shows a tiny ant with a microscopically small cogwheel. It comes from the components kit of a micro motor of the Karlsruhe Research Centre. The entire motor has a diameter of only 1.9 millimetres. The ant holds up the cogwheel like a juggler as a kind of “armband” and seems to smile.

In an impartial process the 2006 competition determines the best photographs that make “the fascination of research and science a visual experience” in their images. For this purpose the organisers appoint a jury composed of experts from science, photography and journalism. The shortlist compiled by the commission from all entries was published on the internet on the pages of FOCUS-Online.

Prizes were awarded to those photos in which the research work or the research results were illustrated particularly succinctly and impressively. The competition was held in two categories: in the category “Fascination of Research” the subject was scientific processes and phenomena. In the second category, “Faces of Research”, pictures putting people at the centre of research were evaluated.