More than 200,000 hand-painted blubs light a stretch of Kobe, Japan, an annual event begun after the devastating 1995 earthquake. Photo: Unknown

The Audubon Society's annual Christmas Bird Count engages birders across North, South, and Central America to gather ornithological data. Photo: Allison Hartzell

The short runway of the local airport requires aircraft to pass less than hundred feet above Maho Beach on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin. Photo: JAR Photography

Bubbles of methane from decaying carbon sediments collect under the ice of an Alaskan lake. Photo: Josh Haner

The long arcing tail of comet Lovejoy serendipitously captured from the window of the International Space Station just before sunrise. Photo: NASA

Northern Canada is home to an estimated 15,000 of the remaining 20,000 polar bears in the world. Photo: Mathieu Belanger

Green flora creates an eerie turquoise glow that radiates throughout the “subway,” a steep walled canyon located in Zion National Park, Utah. Photo: Stephen Oachs

Wall of Death riders of the 1930s thrilled audiences by racing on steep circular tracks at breakneck speeds. Photo: Unknown

Whitewater forms when the geometry of the riverbed, the shape of the channel, and objects in the channel cause a separation of flow. Photo: Jonas Eriksson

Like chromatography, the separation of complex mixtures, the process employed by artist Shane McAdams coaxes a subtlety from the ink of a ballpoint pen. Photo: Shane McAdams

The components of a pre-fab home, as arranged by designer Jens Risom before construction in 1967. Photo: John G. Zimmerman

Over seven centuries, the hillsides of Yunnan province have been transformed into nearly 31,000 acres of rice terraces. Photo: George Doupas

Centripetal force holds both vehicle and lion at a precarious 70 degrees in this 1920’s motordrome. Photo: Unkown

Bristlecone pines live up to 5,000 years and so dense they are nearly impervious to insects. Photo: Domingo Milella

Cars like this Lakester were typical of the 1950s, when racing benefited from increased knowledge of aerodynamics, weight and drag. Photo: J R Eyerman

Workers assemble high-performance automobiles in the state-of-the-art McLaren Production Center located in Surrey, England. Photo: Nigel Young

1,200 bicycles create a ten-meter high cavern, part of a new exhibition by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Photo: Taipei Fine Arts Museum

This 1.5 millimeter-long relative of the nematode will be traveling to the Martian moon Phobos aboard a Russian spacecraft. Photo: Researchers, Inc.

The circular structure that provides “eye color," the iris is responsible for the amount of light that enters the eye. Photo: Suren Manvelyan

Chilean students take to the streets for a kissing protest in demonstration of education costs. Photo: Ricardo de la Peña

Drawing artists from around the world, the Sarasota Chalk Festival is the only international celebration of 16th century Italian street painting. Photo: Jet Media Works

An Indian soldier lights a candle for Dawali, the annual Hindu festival of lights celebrating the victory of good over evil. Photo: Jayanta Dey

The hawk moth unrolls a long proboscis, much like a body-length straw, to sip nectar from flowers—similar to a hummingbird. Photo: David Clark

A Cambodian man herds ducks in a small village on the outskirts of phnom Penh, Cambodia. Photo: Heng Sinith

"See Yourself Sensing," a new book explores the relationship between design, the body, the senses, and technology. Photo: Black Dog Publishing

About 4,000 horses will change hands at the 170th Ballinasloe Horse Fair and Festival, the oldest in Europe. Photo: Kenneth O Halloran

The Trench Bridge, sunk low in the water, finds an interesting way of spanning the moat of an old, Dutch fortress. Photo: RO&AD architects

Thousands of optical fiber strands direct light through concrete making it a translucent material. Photo: litracon.hu

Engineer Thomas Dwyer presents Amanda Boxtel, who is paralyzed, with a new robotic exoskeleton which will enable her to stand and walk again. Photo: Dan Kitwood

Chicago nanny and amateur street photographer Vivan Maier was unknown until almost 100,000 of her photos were discovered by a historian. Photo: Vivan Maier

170,000 pink balls transformed a busy Montreal street in to a pedestrian-only mall celebrating art. Photo: claudecormier.com

It can take up 600 hours and 100,000 Legos for Mike Doyle to create one of these dilapidated Victorian-style homes. Photo: mikedoylesnap.blogspot.com

Nose assemblies for Douglas A-20 attack bombers. Between 1940 and 1945, 6.5 million women joined the workforce. Photo: Douglas Aircraft

A miniature model created by Westinghouse engineers to test ways of protecting power lines from lightening strikes. Photo: Westinghouse Electric Corp.

Air flowing past the tail feathers of the male hummingbird produces the characteristic “hum” of the bird’s courtship ritual. Photo: Doug Tucker

The Mayflower II entering New York harbor after sailing to Providence, Rhode Island in 2002, Photo: B. Anthony Stewart

This kitten glows-in-the-dark as a means of confirming its genetic makeup, helping scientists to better understand HIV. Photo: Mayo Clinic

The Koraija Triplets—Andrew, Joseph, and Robert—have a combined 42 years of service as New Jersey police officers. Photo: Michael Yamashita

The interior of this 1949 “Deluxe” Volkswagen Beetle features such extravagances as a rattan storage shelf, porcelain bud vase, and a clock. Photo: Wright20.com

This satellite view of the Hawaiian Islands shows that most of the vegetation grows on the northeast side facing the trade winds. Photo: Jacques Descloitres

The Globe of the CERN laboratory outside Geneva, where neutrinos were recorded traveling faster than the speed of light. Photo: Anja Niedringhaus

A wooden grasshopper, one of thousands of items collected by designers Charles and Ray Eames during their lives. Photo: Ricardo DeAratanha

Platinum electrodes cover part of the brain in an epilepsy patient, transforming electrical signals into computer commands. Photo: Albany Medical College

Sweltering in 120-degree heat, a tigress seeks relief in a fetid pool of rotting leaves. Photo: Michael Nichols

A weeklong festival in the Nevada desert, 50,000 come to Burning Man to celebrate art and self-expression. Photo: Jim Urquhart

“The smallest thing can be a great subject,” was impetus for the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the father of modern photojournalism. Photo: Henri Cartier-Bresson

Utilizing a wide variety of knives, artist Mark Evens carves and cuts leather hides to expose varied shades of suede to create his epic pieces. Photo: Mark Evans

Fashion provocateur Alexander McQueen was posthumously crowned a genius by the more than half million who attended his exhibit at the MET in New York. Photo: Solve Sundsbo

This ghostly image is actually a CT scan of a porcelain doll. Close inspection reveals a positionable skeleton and teddy bear clenched in her right arm. Photo: radiologyart.com

Two young girls strike a macabre pose in this 1920’s photograph, inspiration for a 2011 social media trend called “horsemanning.” Photo: Unknown

Muslims gather in Tahrir Square, Cairo to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of Ramadan. Photo: Khaled Desouki

Steel wool, cotton,ground parsley, and a bit of photographic magic turn this miniature landscape into an ominous disaster. Photo: Matthew Albanese

Young Poles writhe in the mud pits of the 17th annual Woodstock Festival, held every year in Poland. Photo: Peter Bohler

Easily mistaken for a satellite image, this image actually visualizes Twitter and Flickr usage in North America. Photo: Eric Fischer

Mark Badick and Ken Rose work to extinguish burning oil wells during the first gulf war. Photo: Sebastião Salgado

A professional dancer and precise timing create the impression of zero gravity. Photo: Denisa Tarzaka

The series Nails’ Life recreates situations of everyday life, from steamy to mundane, with simple building nails. Photo: Vlad Artazov

“Osseus structure,” a 75-minute exposure created with a ceramic pinhole camera, which focuses light through a small aperture without a lens. Photo: steveirvine.com

Characterized by short bursts of high cardiac output, according to the Cleveland Clinic, only professional football is more physically demanding than ballet. Photo: jskinnerphoto.com

Artist Mike Stimpson recreates ionic photos with Legos. In this case, Jeff widener’s 1989 photo from Tiananmen Square, “The Unknown Rebel.” Photo: mikestimpson.com

Many artists have used pencils, but Dalton Ghetti uses them in an unusual way–he carves miniature sculptures into the graphite. A single piece can take months. Photo: Dalton Ghetti

A self-supporting cocoon created from nearly 117,000 feet of packing tape, visitors are invited to climb inside and explore. Photo: Numen/For Use

“What Came First?” Photo: kylebean.co.uk

Detail of a tapestry circuit designed by Becky Stern using a LilyPad Arduino micro controller board and conductive wire. Photo: sternlab.org

This infographic, entitled Moon Flower, is a display of the 2011 lunar cycles. Created by Dimitre Lima. Photo: dmtr.org

Finding that condos for the living were no longer profitable, a real estate developer turned to the dead and commissioned the Sunset Chapel in Acapulco, Mexico. Photo: bunker Arquitectura

Located 30 meters under the granite rocks of Stockholm, this headquarters for an internet provider were built in a former fallout shelter. Photo: Ake Eson Lindman

In the early 1960s, Lee Friedlander’s photographs of television sets provided witty, ironic commentary on the "plug-in drug." Photo: Lee Friedlander

Much like a curator, Francesco Bertelli selects each component for his bicycles with a designer’s eye for form, color, and texture. Photo: Francesco Bertelli

The space shuttle Endeavour silhouetted against the layers of Earth's atmosphere. Photo: National Geographic

The Prostho Museum Research Center in Japan, constructed of 6,000 cypress rods in an interlocking three-dimensional gridded structure. Photo: Kengu Kuma and Associates

The tip of a spiral shell has broken off and become a grain of sand. The opalescence is the result of being repeatedly tumbled by the action of the surf. Photo:Gary Greenberg