A neat contest from the good folks at New Voices for Research:

Stop, wherever you are. Quick, grab your phone or closest camera and take a picture of what’s in front of you. Send it to hbenson at researchamerica.org to enter the Mystery Lab contest.

What is the Mystery Lab contest? A chance to show off your research. Monday through Thursday next week the most creative four images submitted will be posted in the order they were received. New Voices readers will be asked to guess what field of research is being represented in the photo (biology, chemistry, marine science, physics, mathematics, etc.)

How to participate: Send an image of your work with the general field you work in as the subject to hbenson at researchamerica.org or via Twitter @NV4Research. Then encourage your friends to guess each day next week.

How to win: The winning entry will be determined using the following formula:
Number of guesses x total daily visitors

The prize: The submitter of the winning entry will receive a copy of Unscientific America: How scientific illiteracy threatens our future by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum. If the winner already has a copy of this fabulous book, we’ll work something out.

Send your entries as soon as possible to be considered! Help us see what real science looks like.