This has to be the coolest contest idea I’ve ever seen. io9.com is accepting creature ideas based on real scientific research or sci fi speculation, and the winner of the more reality-based category gets a trip to Hong Kong to attend the Synthetic Biology Conference. And the winner of the more speculative category gets their creature drawn by a professional comic artist.

Kinda makes me wish I had taken the more rigorous Biology class in college instead of going with easier Astronomy and Entomology classes. But maybe I’ll learn a thing or two by digging through the BioBricks registry.