Prize

In its first year the Black and White Minimalist Photography awards presents a sublime collection of esoteric monochrome imagery. From surreal architectural abstractions to desolate snowbound compositions, the contest is a reminder of the power of minimalism.

Photographer Oleg Ershov won the International Landscape Photographer of the Year award with a folio of spectacular vertical images. In its sixth year, the photo contest delivers a stunning array of images focusing on the beauty of the natural world.

If you've ever wanted a Nobel Prize and don't have the time to come up with a major intellectual contribution, you can just buy one… the medal, that is. Not the prize itself. At Nate D Sanders Auctions, the 1927 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is on the block today.

Google and the IEEE have launched the Little Box Challenge, offering a US$1 million first prize for an innovative electronic design to shrink power inverters down from their current bigger-than-a-bread-box size to something less than the size of a small laptop.

The Romantik Hotel Muottas Muragl located in Switzerland has recently been awarded the highly-coveted Swiss Solar Award 2011.

The “W” Prize is offering US$200,000 for the first robot that can successfully complete a 10km (6.2 miles) obstacle course within 10,000 seconds.

From more than 100 entrants, 43 teams (and 53 vehicles) have advanced to the performance and safety testing stage of the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize, a competition to create viable and super fuel-efficient vehicles.