[peppercorn]

Unusual atmospheric effect...

[RD]

Unusual atmospheric effect...

which looks like a circumzenithal arc ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumzenithal_arc

[RD]

Don't ask me what it is cos I dunno !!

a little bird tells me it's a dragonfly ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-veined_darter

[ someone has cranked up the colour saturation to hallucinogenic levels in the version of the image you posted ]

[peppercorn]

Unusual atmospheric effect...

which looks like a circumzenithal arc ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumzenithal_arc

Thanking you

[neilep]

Tauba Auerbach’s RGB Colorspace Atlas Depicts Every Color Imaginable













The RGB Colorspace Atlas by New York-based artist Tauba Auerbach is a massive tome containing digital offset prints of every variation of RGB color possible. For you designers, think of it as a three-dimensional version of a Photoshop color picker. At 8in. x 8in x 8in. the perfectly cube book was co-designed by Daniel E. Kelm and bound with assistance from Leah Hughes. What a beautiful sculptural object.


(via designboom)

[neilep]

TRANQUILLITYITE, A LUNAR MINERAL, FOUND IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA



During the days of the Apollo moon programme, hundreds of kilograms of rock samples were taken back to Earth by astronauts. Geologists studied these samples extensively and determined there were 3 minerals unique to the moon: armalcolite, pyroxferroite and tranquillityite. Tranquillityite was found in mare basalts collected during the Apollo 11 lunar mission to the Sea of Tranquillity in July 1969 (the mineral is named after the Sea of Tranquillity). Armalcolite and pyroxferroite have since been found on Earth’s surface but tranquillityite was only ever found in meteorite samples. That is, until now.

Birger Rasmussen, a palaeontologist at Curtin University in Perth led a team that has found natural samples of tranquillityite in several sites in Western Australia. The mineral has been found in six dolerite dikes and sills, in amounts so small that they are the width of a human hair and just 150 micrometres in length. Tranquillityite is comparatively delicate and tends to easily break down when exposed to normal surface climatic events (like heat, rain and wind). It develops during the late stages of crystallisation of molten rocks in oxygen-poor conditions.

The team had come across some interesting rocks that resembled the lunar rocks they had previously been studying. They subjected the sample to a blast of electrons; the trajectories of the blast are unique to each mineral. They found a perfect match to the lunar samples.

Tranquillityite [Fe2+8(ZrY)2Ti3Si3O24] is mostly made up of Si, Zr, Ti, and Fe, with minor Al, Mg, Mn, Ca, Nb, Hf, Y, and rare earth elements (REE). Before you get excited about mining prospects, know that it doesn’t seem to have much economical value. Using Uranium–lead (U–Pb) dating on tranquillityite from sills intruding the Eel Creek Formation, northeastern Pilbara Craton, gave a 207Pb/206Pb age of 1064 ± 14 Ma (1.064 billion years old). The mineral can give researchers insights into the age of other rocks in which it is found.

SOURCE: THE EARTH STORY

[neilep]

What could this possibly be? Yes, that's right. It's obviously a hummingbird's tongue!

[neilep]

RAINBOW CLOUD

The stunning image below is of a rainbow cloud, captured above Mt Everest by Oleg Bartunov whilst on an expedition in the Himalayas, Nepal.
The amazing rainbow effect is created when tiny ice crystals in the water vapour of the clouds reflect the sunlight.
The sight is rare and has only been reported a few times previously.



Image credit: Oleg Bartunov

[neilep]

UNDERWATER PARK





The lake looks unusual, in that it looks like an underwater park. That is because it is!

In the wintertime, the lake is almost nonexistent and the area is used as a park, which is a favourite among hikers.

In the springtime however, the ice and snow on the mountains melts, and this melt-water fills the basin below. The park is filled with this ice cold, almost crystal clear water. The lake looks green in colour due to the foliage beneath.

The water levels rise from about one or two metres deep in the winter to as much as 10 metres in the late spring and early summer.
The waters are at their highest in June when it becomes a mecca for divers keen to explore the rare phenomenon, before the waters recede at the end of July.





SOURCE: AMAZING EARTH

[CliffordK]

All they need would be a few underwater inhabitants for the underwater park.


National Geographic

[neilep]

All they need would be a few underwater inhabitants for the underwater park.

National Geographic

Agreed !!.....Oh Hang On !!...there's some statues there too !!

[neilep]

This gorgeous creature is Chrysolina cerealis, also known as the rainbow leaf beetle. They're found throughout Eurasia, and are about 8mm long. Typically, the females are larger than the males.




No Source Given(sent to a sheep via email)

[neilep]

BRICK UPON AEROGEL



This picture is of a 2.5kg brick supported by a piece of aerogel, the worlds lightest solid material. This particular piece weighs in with a mass of 2 grams.
Aerogel is nicknamed 'frozen smoke' or 'solid air', due to the fact that it is composed of 99.98% air by volume. Aerogels are a diverse class of amazing materials with properties unlike anything else known. They exhibit the lowest thermal conductivity of any known solid, and are the lowest density structural materials ever developed.
In spite of their name, aerogels are solids and not gels. The name is derived from the production process, the liquid component of a gel is extracted through supercritical drying. The first aerogels were produced from silica gels, but later work produced aerogels based on alumina, chromia and tin dioxide.


SOURCE: FACEBOOK  Clicking on this link takes you to a Facebook site dedicated to science and the name of the site contains and expletive that some users may find offensive. If you are offended by expletives please do not click on the link. You have been warned !

[neilep]

Mysterious Underwater ‘Crop Circles’ Discovered Off the Coast of Japan






According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration less than five percentof the world’s oceans have been explored, meaning that 95% of what lies deep underwater on Earth has yet to be seen by human eyes.
One person who has dedicated his life to uncovering the mysteries of the deep is Japanese photographer Yoji Ookata who obtained his scuba license at the age of 21 and has since spent the last 50 years exploring and documenting his discoveries off the coast of Japan. Recently while on a dive near Amami Oshima at the southern tip of the country, Ookata spotted something he had never encountered before: rippling geometric sand patterns nearly six feet in diameter almost 80 feet below sea level. He soon returned with colleagues and a television crew from the nature program NHK to document the origins what he dubbed the “mystery circle.”
Here is what they found.




Using underwater cameras the team discovered the artist is a small puffer fish only a few inches in length that swims tirelessly through the day and night to create these vast organic sculptures using the gesture of a single fin. Through careful observation the team found the circles serve a variety of crucial ecological functions, the most important of which is to attract mates. Apparently the female fish are attracted to the hills and valleys within the sand and traverse them carefully to discover the male fish where the pair eventually lay eggs at the circle’s center, the grooves later acting as a natural buffer to ocean currents that protect the delicate offspring. Scientists also learned that the more ridges contained within the sculpture resulted in a much greater likelihood of the fish pairing.




SOURCE: COLOSSAL

[RD]

Snap ...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05Io6lop3mk#t=2m22s

... Scientists also learned that the more ridges contained within the sculpture resulted in a much greater likelihood of the fish pairing.

The higher the frequency the more complex the pattern, so the amount of ridge patterns in a sand sculpture would demonstrate the fitness (strength/stamina) of the male who created it.

[neilep]

Always impressed by RD's resourcefulness !

Wonderful similarities.....I'm sure I saw a snowflake like that last year too...I'll go see if I can find it ! 

[RD]

...I'm sure I saw a snowflake like that last year too...I'll go see if I can find it ! 

You won't find a snowflake with 20-something-fold radial symmetry like the above patterns : snowflakes only come in the 6-fold variety.

[ Hexagonal cymatic patterns are possible though ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCUg4Kx_CjY ]

[neilep]

...I'm sure I saw a snowflake like that last year too...I'll go see if I can find it ! 

You won't find a snowflake with 20-something-fold radial symmetry like the above patterns : snowflakes only come in the 6-fold variety.

[ Hexagonal cymatic patterns are possible though ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCUg4Kx_CjY ]

Ahhh....that explains it...it must have been 3 or 4 snowflakes overlapped then !

[neilep]

Talk about adaptation! This impala from the Kruger National Park in South African is now a mobile home for a spider with the spider's web spun between the impala's two horns. The impala had the misfortune to walk into the spiders web, and it seems to have settled in for a permanent stay!





SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/evolutionarybiology

[CliffordK]

Talk about adaptation! This impala from the Kruger National Park in South African is now a mobile home for a spider with the spider's web spun between the impala's two horns. The impala had the misfortune to walk into the spiders web, and it seems to have settled in for a permanent stay!

I like that.
A mobile flytrap.
I think I need one of those for around the house.

We may see the evolution of a new species.  Perhaps a symbiotic relationship of keeping the bugs out of the impala's eyes, and the impalas bringing more food to the spiders.

[neilep]

Aerial Photographs of Volcanic Iceland by Andre Ermolaev
















At first glance these photos by Andre Ermolaev look like twisting abstract paintings, but in reality are aerial photos of rivers flowing through Iceland’s endless beds of volcanic ash. Given its name and stereotypical depiction it’s somewhat surprising to learn that the small country named after ice is home to no less than 30 active volcanic systems. You’ll remember the eruption of the massive Grímsvötn volcano just last year that spewed some 120 million tons of ash in the first 48 hours and snarled air traffic for days. Of his photographs Ermolaev says:

Iceland is a wonderful country; I would even say that it is a true paradise for all the photo shooting-lovers. But what has become a real discovery for me is the bird’s eye view of the rivers flowing along the black volcanic sand. It is an inexpressible combination of colors, lines, and patterns. The photo represents the mouth of the river falling into the ocean. [...] A little bit upstream there is a yellow-colored brook flowing into the river, but yellow currents fail to mix with the main water flow. One can estimate the scale judging by the car tracks that are clearly seen on the black sand. This is just a river, just a volcano, just our planet.

SOURCE: COLOSSAL

[CliffordK]

The latest product from France.
M&M colored Honey.

Unfortunately the bee keepers think it isn't sellable.  Apparently they haven't figured out the power of E-Bay and free web advertising.

[neilep]

DIFFERENT DENSITIES OF LIQUIDS

[neilep]

Spider and wasp caught In Amber





What you are seeing here is a small piece of natural history frozen in time. During the early Cretaceous period (between 97 and 100 million years ago), a juvenile orb-weaving spider (Geratonephila burmanica) was on its way down to a parasitic wasp (Cascoscelio incassus) that had been caught in its web. The wasp belonged to a group that are now known to parasitize spider eggs, so perhaps this wasp became trapped while searching for eggs.

Just as the spider walked up to the wasp, tree resin flowed down and engulfed both the predator and its prey, trapping them in exactly the moment before the spider began its meal. This is the first time such an attack has been preserved in amber, and it gives us a rare glimpse into the ecology of dinosaur-era insects.

What makes this fossil even more amazing is the presence of the web itself trapped in the amber, as well as a second adult male spider of the same species in the same web. This makes this the oldest evidence of social behavior in spiders, who normally prefer to live alone. Today, male social orb-weaving spiders tend to live on female-constructed webs, where they help capture prey and maintain the web.

Sources:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121008134523.htm
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/10/fossil-spider-attack/

[neilep]

Glittering Metallic Ink Clouds Photographed by Albert Seveso

For this new series, Il Mattino ha l’oro in bocca, Seveso uses accents of metallic inks to accentuate the rolling plumes of color as they disperse underwater. All photos courtesy the artist.