Science in itself is captivating and we love science as art, but these photos from the 2011 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge really drew us in.

Contest judges made their picks based on visual impact, originality and clarity. The winners, which include “people’s choice” awards as well as honorable mentions, were published online Feb. 2 in the journal Science. Here are some of our favorites via Wired Science:

Mouse Eyeball Cells (above)
Researchers stained ultra-thin slices of a mouse’s eye to create this first-place photography winner. The stain was made of three antibodies that bind to three different molecules present in all cells, but in differing concentrations.
Image: Bryan William Jones/University of Utah/Moran Eye Center 

Breast Cancer Cells
In this illustration, breast cancer cells bear tentacle-like projections. An antibody designed to combat breast cancer, called TRA-8, floats in the foreground (green blobs). It earned an honourable mention.

Image: Emiko Paul/Quade Paul/Echo Medical Media/Ron Gamble/UAB Insight 

Cucumber Skin Barbs
Under 800X magnification, this honorable-mention-winning photograph shows toxin-filled barbs called trichomes on the skin of an immature cucumber. The trichomes bear sharp points to help protect the growing fruit from predators.

Image: Dr. Robert Rock Bellivea

This week we’re running an amazing contest with WIRED’s Geek Dad blog.

Simply visit our Facebook page and enter to win a 40×40″ Kiss Portrait or one of two copies of The Geek Dad Book For Aspiring Mad Scientists by Ken Denmead.

Just for entering we’ll give you a $100 DNA 11 gift code.

The contest runs until Thursday, February 9. We’ll annouce the winners on  Friday, Feburary 10.

Good luck!

Are you curious about your roots? Check out these OkayAfrica videos to see how knowing their ancestry impacted members of The Roots and A Tribe Called Quest.

The Roots’ Questlove’s maternal lineage points to Sierra Leone, while Black Thought’s ancestry stems from the Mandinka Tribe, whose rich oral history was passed down by singers.

Q-Tip’s tribal ancestry links to Djola, a tribe who made a musical instrument similar to the banjo—which created Blues, which influenced music and lead to hip-hop—forever changing the modern music scene.

Showcase your own roots by adding a DNA Ancestry Signature to your DNA Portrait—it’s a scannable barcode “signature” that crosses over from physical to digital to trace your maternal lineage. The barcode is placed at the bottom right of your portrait in a color that compliments your DNA art.

Get 15% off + free shipping on any DNA 11 order with code VALENTINE15 (valid until Jan. 29).

Videos from OkayAfricaTV, in partnership with AfricanAncestry.

“The Helix Nebula, captured in infrared light by the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope at Chile’s Paranal Observatory. The Helix Nebula is actually one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth, just 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius.”

“The Milky Way, viewed from the Cook Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean on a clear summer night. Snapped by skywatcher Tunc Tezel on the second largest Cook Island of Mangaia, the image was chosen as a winner of the National Maritime Museum’s Astrophotographer of the Year 2011 contest.”

“A whirling image of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope and the stars above it circling the southern celestial pole. It’s less a space pic than an Earth pic depicting really cool space searching technology.”

“Cassini proves once again that it’s the spacecraft that just keeps on giving. That’s fine with us, since it keeps sending back pics like these from its wide orbit around arguably the solar system’s second-coolest planet. Represented here: Saturn’s signature rings and five of its more than 60 natural satellites.”

The sky has always been mystifying, and with so many monumental discoveries on the horizon it’s impossible not to marvel at the universe’s vastness. We can’t wait to see which Pretty Space Pics turn up next!

Photos: Helix Nebula: ESO/VISTA/J. Emerson; The Milky Way: Tunc Tezel; Very Large Telescope: F. Char/ESO via SPACE; Saturn: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

Available as a floor or hanging lamp, the red fabric-covered cable is close to 33 feet and rolls up between the two diffusers just like the string of a yo-yo.

The true essence of a room lies in well-curated details, and this light is certainly a conversation piece. Afterall, the right accessories, unique furniture and personalized art can transform your space into something memorable and remarkable.

Biology meets technology meets design—London-based designer Samuel Wilkinson has created the Biome, an awe-worthy, technologically-influenced flora terrarium. Its climate, nutrients and water level can be controlled through your smartphone or tablet. Via Design Milk:

According to Wilkinson, “the idea promotes ‘digital downtime’ by finding an alternative use for smartphones and encouraging their owners to consider a slower life. The control and nurturing of a real mini eco-system takes patience and care, contrasting with the immediacy of messaging or tweeting that is so characteristic of the smartphone generation.”

The Biome was developed for an exhibition titled Slow Tech – Designs for Digital Downtime at trend agency Protein’s exhibition space. The exhibition was curated by Henrietta Thompson (editor-at-large at Wallpaper*).

Photo by Sylvain Deleu.

As the year comes to a close, we found Wired Science’s list of favorite scientific discoveries of 2011. From chimpanzee freedom to the God Particle, hominid mutts to commodity speculators, their top ten makes us ask questions and dig deeper for answers about how we live(d) and the world(s) around us.

Do you have any favorites that aren’t on this list?

Extinct Human Ancestors Survive in our Genes
Anthropologists have suspected for years that Homo sapiens cross-bred with Neanderthals, which proved true in 2010 with the first hard genetic evidence of Neanderthal DNA surviving in living humans. Moreover, 2011 proclaimed that it’s not just Neanderthals that live on in us, but long-extinct, recently discovered Neanderthal cousins called Denisovans. (Now THAT would be an amazing DNA Portrait!)

Hints of the Higgs boson
The $10 billion Large Hadron Collider may have proven its worth in December when results from two experiments, ATLAS and CMS, showed a small data bump that might correspond to the long-sought Higgs boson. If future data corroborates the finding, finding the Higgs will likely be regarded as one of the 21st century’s great discoveries.

Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos Detected—or Not
In September, researchers announced the measurement of neutrinos flying faster than the speed of light. Although most physicists dismissed the finding, the masses still hoped for the start of a new scientific revolution.

A New Link Between Aging Cells and Aging People
The debate on whether aging at the organismal level is linked to aging at the cellular level has been active for decades, but this November gerontologists showed that flushing old, broken-down cells from the bodies of mice slowed the aging process. Even though the same trick can’t be performed for people as was performed in this one strain of genetically modified mice, the findings will likely influence a whole new generation of aging research.

Humanity Hits 7 Billion
In October, the human population reached 7 billion—just 12 years after we hit 6 billion. In contrast, it took humanity about 72,000 years to reach its first billion. The number prompted a global moment of reflection: How do we, as a civilization, want to live? Do we want to share—with each other, and with the rest of life?

More from Wired Science’s 2011 list of discoveries:
Deregulation, Speculation and the Price of Food
Intelligent Animals and Emotional Bees
Bird Flu Nightmare Comes True—in the Lab
Chimps Not Needed for Hepatitis C Research
A Possibly Habitable, Earth-Like Planet

Header Image: Neanderthal sculpture by John Gurche, photographed by Chip Clark. (Smithsonian Institution).

We’re brimming with holiday cheer and giving away a DNA 11 Mini Portrait today! It’s our last daily goody before the big Grand Prize draw on December 28th.

A compact version of our larger works, the DNA Mini Portrait measures 8″ x 10″ (20 cm x 25 cm) and is a custom Giclee print protected by a glare-resistant glass frame. It can easily be displayed on shelf, desktop or wall.

To enter today’s give-away, tell us how you’d get a DNA Portrait of. Leave a comment on this blog post, tweet us @DNA11 or post on our Facebook page.  

(And if you haven’t entered to win the grand prize, it closes today at 12pm EST!  Enter now!).

We’re big fans of Wacom—all of our designers use their products! And to complement our upcoming Grand Prize draw, Wacom threw in a Bamboo Stylus for iPad as today’s giveaway.

Just what you would expect from Wacom—simple but elegant, the Bamboo Stylus offers users a premium experience for notetaking, sketching, drawing, and other forms of creative expression. It brings a more accurate and precise way to take notes in meetings and classroom settings, or to sketch out rough ideas while on the go.

Want a chance to win today’s prize? Re-Tweet our Gift Certificate tweets from from our Twitter feed or publicly “Share” a Facebook post.

Only TWO DAYS left to enter for a chance to win DNA 11 portraits, CanvasPop prints, and more!
(And if you haven’t yet entered to win the grand prize, enter today!).