Enrique Diaz

STAR Detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

By Megan Gannon
LiveScience

Particle colliders and rare-isotope accelerators not only help scientists understand how the universe was formed. The immense machines can be beautiful, too.

Last September, nearly 400 photographers toured some of the world's leading physics labs to capture the exquisite forms of technology inside. Forty images that came out of the second so-called Particle Physics Photowalk were chosen as finalists, and the InterAction collaboration, which represents the labs, wants your votes for the winner.

The photos that win the public's vote, as well as those that sway a panel of international judges, will be featured in Symmetry magazine and the CERN Courier. CERN is the lab in Switzerland that hosts the world's largest particle accelerator called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), whose experiments revealed last year a new elementary particle that is likely the long-sought Higgs boson.

Nino Bruno

Last September, nearly 400 photographers toured the world's leading physics labs as part of the Particle Physics Photowalk. Forty images, such as this shot of Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory, were chosen as finalists for a photo contest.

The top picks, which also will go on exhibit at the labs, are to be revealed in March. [See Some Finalists in the Photo Contest]

Among the facilities featured in the contest was the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab in Illinois, where photographers snapped away at its muon storage ring and four-story-tall collider detector, which once was used to look for high-energy particle collisions inside the Tevatron, an atom smasher that was shut down in 2011. And at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, photographers captured the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, now the only particle collider operating in the United States with the Tevatron's closing.

Participants also roamed Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory, the largest underground laboratory in the world; Chilbolton Observatory's 82-foot 25-meter antenna and millimeter wave laboratory in England; and U.K. Astronomy Technology Center's 36-inch (0.9 m) telescope and electronics and materials laboratories in Scotland. A photo of TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, looks more like an artsy, industrial alley than static laboratory; another TRIUMF image reveals a lit-up star design.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook  and  Google+.

• Tiny Grandeur: Stunning Photos of the Very Small
• What's That? Your Physics Questions Answered
• Photos: The World's Largest Atom Smasher (LHC)

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A contest sponsored by the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science has been recognizing the top underwater pictures taken by amateur photographers since 2005, but this year is different: For the first time, Internet users are being asked to select a "fan favorite" from five nominees. The voting runs through Sunday, and the People's Choice will be revealed along with other winners on April 18. Which is your favorite?

Courtesy of UM Underwater Photo Contest

The sun glints behind a jellyfish seen from the waters below.

Courtesy of UM Underwater Photo Contest

A crab and its eggs make a colorful display.

Courtesy of UM Underwater Photo Contest

A single fish is framed by a school of smaller swimmers.

Courtesy of UM Underwater Photo Contest

A penguin peers into the camera as it floats by.

Courtesy of UM Underwater Photo Contest

Colorfully striped fish make their way through an underwater scene.

The arrangement of the pictures reflects the current standings in the "People's Choice" poll. Those rankings could change as the week goes on. For now, the identity of the photographers is being held back, although at least one of the nominees is making a personal plea on the University of Miami website. That's where you can register your vote — or "votes," since you can click for your favorite once a day through Sunday. Stay tuned for the big reveal on April 18.

More about underwater photography:

• Underwater photography contest kicks off
• Bellyflop! Amazing photos of underwater dogs
• 2011: Cameras capture underwater wonders
• Photo exhibit displayed on artificial reef

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

A competition that aims to harness the world's most creative engineering minds for building next-generation military drones is heating up with proof-of-flight videos of the contraptions posted online.

There are plenty of quadcopters that will make kids stuck with off-the-shelf RC choppers drool. Top judging in the first round went to a Death Star-like ball on wheels called the GremLion. It's neat trick? A mid-section that pops open to reveal a pair of rotors.

The GremLion was designed by a team at the National University of Singapore and is shown off in the awesomely narrated video above.

However, the video most liked by viewers, as of this writing, demonstrates a tablet-controlled quadcopter called SwiftFlight. The video's production includes Hollywood-esque on-screen pop-up explanations of the action.

Another crowd pleaser is a video describing icarusLabs's entry, a winged aircraft that hovers inside an office before taking to the skies. It buzzes a park with sustained winds of 10 miles per hour, something we know thanks to the detailed reportage.

The next phase of the competition will be live demonstration of the concepts later this month. A fly-off of the 10 top designs will be held this spring. The winner will receive a $100,000 prize, a subcontract with a manufacturer to develop the concept, and an opportunity to demonstrate it to the military. 

For more videos and information on the competition, head on over to UAVforge.net.

— via IEEE

More on drones:

• Future drones may fly like butterflies
• Can drones fly as well as Luke Skywalker?
• U.S. Army orders first suicide drones
• Navy flying drone to launch from submarine's trash chute
• On the wings of technology: Hummingbird drones

John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website. You can also follow him on Twitter.

For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.