Showing posts tagged science
Cassini image of the moon Mimas in the shadow of Saturn’s rings. Enlarge to see Mimas. Via Lights in the Dark View high resolution

Cassini image of the moon Mimas in the shadow of Saturn’s rings. Enlarge to see Mimas. Via Lights in the Dark

Crescent Enceladus with Saturn’s rings. Taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 4, 2012. View high resolution

Crescent Enceladus with Saturn’s rings. Taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 4, 2012.

Archive of High-Res Photos From NASA’s Gemini Missions. NASA via Wired Science.

Via MAGGIE KOERTH-BAKER View high resolution

Via MAGGIE KOERTH-BAKER

M3-class solar flare. Via Lights in the Dark Click image for animation. View high resolution

M3-class solar flare. Via Lights in the Dark Click image for animation.

Loving the Chambered Nautilus to Death From the New York Times: It is a living fossil whose ancestors go back a half billion years — to the early days of complex life on the planet, when the land was barren and the seas were warm. View high resolution

Loving the Chambered Nautilus to Death

From the New York Times: It is a living fossil whose ancestors go back a half billion years — to the early days of complex life on the planet, when the land was barren and the seas were warm.

Intrinsic Fluorescence in Lepidozia Reptans Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition Via The Big Picture View high resolution

Intrinsic Fluorescence in Lepidozia Reptans

Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition

Via The Big Picture

Big Sisters — Saturn’s two largest moons, Rhea and Titan Via J. Major, Lights in the Dark Raw images taken in red, green and blue visible-light channels were combined to make this color version. The spacecraft was 1,828,949 km (1,136,456 miles) from Rhea when the images were taken. Credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute. Edited by Jason Major. View high resolution

Big Sisters — Saturn’s two largest moons, Rhea and Titan

Via J. Major, Lights in the Dark

Raw images taken in red, green and blue visible-light channels were combined to make this color version. The spacecraft was 1,828,949 km (1,136,456 miles) from Rhea when the images were taken.

Credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute. Edited by Jason Major.

This up to 1000 years old snow has metamorphosed into highly pressurized glacier ice that contains almost no air bubbles. Thus it absorbs the visible light despite the scattered shortest blue fraction, giving it its distinct deep blue waved appearance. This cavity in the glacier ice formed as a result of a glacial mill, or moulin. Rain and meltwater on the glacier surface is channelled into streams that enter the glacier at crevices. The waterfall melts a hole into the glacier while the ponded water drains towards lower elevations by forming long ice caves with an outlet at the terminus of the glacier. The fine grained sediments in the water along with wind blown sediments cause the frozen meltwater stream to appear in a muddy colour while the top of the cave exhibits the deep blue colour. Due to the fast movement of the glacier of about 1 m per day over uneven terrain this ice cave cracked up at its end into a deep vertical crevice, called cerrac. This causes the indirect daylight to enter the ice cave from both ends resulting in homogeneous lighting of the ice tunnel. View high resolution

This up to 1000 years old snow has metamorphosed into highly pressurized glacier ice that contains almost no air bubbles. Thus it absorbs the visible light despite the scattered shortest blue fraction, giving it its distinct deep blue waved appearance. This cavity in the glacier ice formed as a result of a glacial mill, or moulin.

Rain and meltwater on the glacier surface is channelled into streams that enter the glacier at crevices. The waterfall melts a hole into the glacier while the ponded water drains towards lower elevations by forming long ice caves with an outlet at the terminus of the glacier. The fine grained sediments in the water along with wind blown sediments cause the frozen meltwater stream to appear in a muddy colour while the top of the cave exhibits the deep blue colour.

Due to the fast movement of the glacier of about 1 m per day over uneven terrain this ice cave cracked up at its end into a deep vertical crevice, called cerrac. This causes the indirect daylight to enter the ice cave from both ends resulting in homogeneous lighting of the ice tunnel.

(Reblogged from nickelcobalt)
Overfished ecosystem held together by a single species. Ars Technica “When an ecosystem becomes overfished, some species may be able to step in and fill the food chain gaps until others can recover, according to a new study published in Science. The bearded goby, a fish that lives off the coast of southwest Africa, has become the predominant prey species in the area because the rest have been overfished. The goby should be threatened under the weight of so many predators, but it isn’t—in fact, researchers find it’s doing better than ever, thanks to its ability to adapt while supporting the rest of the region’s food chain.” View high resolution

Overfished ecosystem held together by a single species. Ars Technica

“When an ecosystem becomes overfished, some species may be able to step in and fill the food chain gaps until others can recover, according to a new study published in Science. The bearded goby, a fish that lives off the coast of southwest Africa, has become the predominant prey species in the area because the rest have been overfished. The goby should be threatened under the weight of so many predators, but it isn’t—in fact, researchers find it’s doing better than ever, thanks to its ability to adapt while supporting the rest of the region’s food chain.”

This movie shows the wheel tracks left by the Opportunity rover as it climbed uphill out of Victoria crater. The rover entered and exited the crater at the alcove called “Duck Bay” leaving two sets of wheel tracks on the steep hill, which is inclined at about 23 degrees. The rock cliff in the center of the movie behind the tracks is called “Cape Verde” and is about 6 meters tall (20 feet tall). That’s about twice the height of a basketball hoop. Via J. Major, Lights in the Dark

This movie shows the wheel tracks left by the Opportunity rover as it climbed uphill out of Victoria crater. The rover entered and exited the crater at the alcove called “Duck Bay” leaving two sets of wheel tracks on the steep hill, which is inclined at about 23 degrees. The rock cliff in the center of the movie behind the tracks is called “Cape Verde” and is about 6 meters tall (20 feet tall). That’s about twice the height of a basketball hoop.

Via J. Major, Lights in the Dark

Diatoms are a Girl’s Best Friend. Mary Ann Tiffany, San Diego State University. Via Presurfer Scanning Electron Micrographs of Diatoms. (A) Biddulphia reticulata. The whole shell or frustule of a centric diatom showing valves and girdle bands (size bar = 10 micrometres). (B) Diploneis sp. This picture shows two whole pennate diatom frustules in which raphes or slits, valves, and girdle bands can be seen (size bar = 10 micrometres). (C) Eupodiscus radiatus. View of a single valve of a centric diatom (size bar = 20 micrometres) (D) Melosira varians. The frustule of a centric diatom, showing both valves and some girdle bands (size bar = 10 micrometres). View high resolution

Diatoms are a Girl’s Best Friend. Mary Ann Tiffany, San Diego State University. Via Presurfer

Scanning Electron Micrographs of Diatoms. (A) Biddulphia reticulata. The whole shell or frustule of a centric diatom showing valves and girdle bands (size bar = 10 micrometres). (B) Diploneis sp. This picture shows two whole pennate diatom frustules in which raphes or slits, valves, and girdle bands can be seen (size bar = 10 micrometres). (C) Eupodiscus radiatus. View of a single valve of a centric diatom (size bar = 20 micrometres) (D) Melosira varians. The frustule of a centric diatom, showing both valves and some girdle bands (size bar = 10 micrometres).
Jessica Griggs, NewScientist Sussman has travelled the world capturing images like this picture of a llareta plant in the Atacama desert in Chile. A relative of parsley, it looks like moss but actually consists of thousands of flowering buds on long stems which are so densely packed together they can withstand the weight of a human. Some parts of this particular specimen are thought to be more than 3000 years old, though we don’t know enough about the plant to estimate its lifespan. Read More View high resolution
Jessica Griggs, NewScientist
Sussman has travelled the world capturing images like this picture of a llareta plant in the Atacama desert in Chile. A relative of parsley, it looks like moss but actually consists of thousands of flowering buds on long stems which are so densely packed together they can withstand the weight of a human. Some parts of this particular specimen are thought to be more than 3000 years old, though we don’t know enough about the plant to estimate its lifespan.

Read More

Emotion’s Alchemy, Genevieve Wanucha, SEED Magazine

For centuries, philosophers and physiologists have puzzled over the phenomenon of emotion. Where are joy, sadness, fear located in the “gelatinous substance” of the brain? wondered nineteenth century phrenologist Franz Gall. How is emotion’s expression related to subjective feeling? In the 1890s, psychologists William James and Carl Lange suggested we don’t cry because we are sad, rather, “we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble,” but other theories reigned. And though the James-Lange theory has had a resurgence in recent decades, not until fMRI technology revealed images of the emotional brain could we begin to empirically explore Shakespeare’s musing in The Merchant of Venice: “Tell me where is fancy bred / Or in the heart, or in the head?”

A Lights in the Dark homage to Rhea and the Rings by Cassini: “Taken on March 24, this raw image shows Rhea, Saturn’s second-largest moon, suspended in orbit in front of the twilight side of Saturn, its rings reduced to a thin ribbon of bands at this viewing angle. The width of the rings is hinted at by their shadows falling onto the southern half of the planet…and little Epimetheus passes by in the background between them and Rhea.” High Resolution Image Here View high resolution

A Lights in the Dark homage to Rhea and the Rings by Cassini: “Taken on March 24, this raw image shows Rhea, Saturn’s second-largest moon, suspended in orbit in front of the twilight side of Saturn, its rings reduced to a thin ribbon of bands at this viewing angle. The width of the rings is hinted at by their shadows falling onto the southern half of the planet…and little Epimetheus passes by in the background between them and Rhea.”
High Resolution Image Here