Ribbon lightning is when a bolt of lightning separates due to wind and appears as parallel lightning streaks.
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
1.17.2016
9.16.2014
+ Geoff Mackley
Ambrym is a large basaltic volcano with a 12-km-wide caldera. It is not only one of the most active volcanoes of Vanuatu, but also in the world. Ambrym’s caldera is a wide, impressive moon-like landscape containing an ash plain, cut by innumerable erosion gullies and containing several active craters and recent lava flows.
The caldera is believed to have formed during a major plinian eruption with dacitic pyroclastic flows about 1900 years ago. Activity after the caldera formation was concentrated around two vents that have become large complex craters called Marum and Benbow. Often, both Marum and Benbow (as well as other craters) contain small lava lakes, which occasionally erupt lava flows onto the caldera floor, or even exit the caldera through erosion gaps.
To capture close-up footage of this lava lake on the Pacific island of Vanuatu, Geoff Mackley and his colleagues had to brave excruciating heat and some rather precarious-looking abseiling.
You can see more incredible shots at Mackley’s website.
9.08.2014
6.10.2014
+ star stuff
“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we’ve learned most of what we know. Recently, we’ve waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” - CARL SAGAN
9.16.2013
+ Helmholtz resonance
The Hang, Halo, Ocarina are a few instruments that use the science of these resonances.
Helmholtz resonance is the phenomenon of air resonance in a cavity, such as when one blows across the top of an empty bottle. The name comes from a device created in the 1850s by Hermann von Helmholtz, the "Helmholtz resonator", which he, the author of the classic study of acoustic science, used to identify the various frequencies or musical pitches present in music and other complex sounds. When air is forced into a cavity, the pressure inside increases. When the external force pushing the air into the cavity is removed, the higher-pressure air inside will flow out. The cavity will be left at a pressure slightly lower than the outside, causing air to be drawn back in. This process repeats with the magnitude of the pressure changes decreasing each time.
*text and photo from wikipedia.org*
2.19.2013
+ Ecospheres
Closed ecological systems are ecosystems that do not rely on matter
exchange with any part outside the system. Although the Earth itself
fits this definition, the term is most often used to describe much
smaller manmade ecosystems. Such systems are scientifically interesting
and can potentially serve as a life support system during space
flights, in space stations or space habitats. In a closed ecological
system, any waste products produced by one species must be used by at
least one other species.http://www.eco-sphere.com
2.03.2012
+ The Maria S.C. Chandelier
named for and inspired by Maria Sklodowska-Curie by Polish designer Pani Jurek.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a physicist and chemist famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes[1]—in physics and chemistry. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.[2] (wiki)
Marie Skłodowska-Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a physicist and chemist famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes[1]—in physics and chemistry. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.[2] (wiki)
12.04.2011
+
Lighting Tea Bag by Wonsik Chae
March 5th, 2009 - Tech
Creative lighting concept by Wonsik Chae imitates the form of a tea bag.
Consisting of a cup filled with a chemical intermediate and a bag containing fluorescent molecules, the light works through a catalyst of this chemical reaction.
March 5th, 2009 - Tech
Creative lighting concept by Wonsik Chae imitates the form of a tea bag.
Consisting of a cup filled with a chemical intermediate and a bag containing fluorescent molecules, the light works through a catalyst of this chemical reaction.
12.01.2011
+ cuttlefish and friends
after posting the cute squid and octopus, i didnt want to leave out another major cephalopod. he isnt a fish at all, they are some of the most intelligent invertebrates out there.
one of my favorite magazines, ORION, published this wonderful article on octopus intelligence. i included the first bit, and a link to read the rest...
Deep Intellect
Inside the mind of the octopus
by Sy Montgomery
Published in the November/December 2011 issue of Orion magazine
Photograph: Brandon Cole
ON AN UNSEASONABLY WARM day in the middle of March, I traveled from New Hampshire to the moist, dim sanctuary of the New England Aquarium, hoping to touch an alternate reality. I came to meet Athena, the aquarium’s forty-pound, five-foot-long, two-and-a-half-year-old giant Pacific octopus.
For me, it was a momentous occasion. I have always loved octopuses. No sci-fi alien is so startlingly strange. Here is someone who, even if she grows to one hundred pounds and stretches more than eight feet long, could still squeeze her boneless body through an opening the size of an orange; an animal whose eight arms are covered with thousands of suckers that taste as well as feel; a mollusk with a beak like a parrot and venom like a snake and a tongue covered with teeth; a creature who can shape-shift, change color, and squirt ink. But most intriguing of all, recent research indicates that octopuses are remarkably intelligent.
Many times I have stood mesmerized by an aquarium tank, wondering, as I stared into the horizontal pupils of an octopus’s large, prominent eyes, if she was staring back at me—and if so, what was she thinking?
Not long ago, a question like this would have seemed foolish, if not crazy. How can an octopus know anything, much less form an opinion? Octopuses are, after all, “only” invertebrates—they don’t even belong with the insects, some of whom, like dragonflies and dung beetles, at least seem to show some smarts. Octopuses are classified within the invertebrates in the mollusk family, and many mollusks, like clams, have no brain.
Only recently have scientists accorded chimpanzees, so closely related to humans we can share blood transfusions, the dignity of having a mind. But now, increasingly, researchers who study octopuses are convinced that these boneless, alien animals—creatures whose ancestors diverged from the lineage that would lead to ours roughly 500 to 700 million years ago—have developed intelligence, emotions, and individual personalities. Their findings are challenging our understanding of consciousness itself.
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6474
one of my favorite magazines, ORION, published this wonderful article on octopus intelligence. i included the first bit, and a link to read the rest...
Deep Intellect
Inside the mind of the octopus
by Sy Montgomery
Published in the November/December 2011 issue of Orion magazine
Photograph: Brandon Cole
ON AN UNSEASONABLY WARM day in the middle of March, I traveled from New Hampshire to the moist, dim sanctuary of the New England Aquarium, hoping to touch an alternate reality. I came to meet Athena, the aquarium’s forty-pound, five-foot-long, two-and-a-half-year-old giant Pacific octopus.
For me, it was a momentous occasion. I have always loved octopuses. No sci-fi alien is so startlingly strange. Here is someone who, even if she grows to one hundred pounds and stretches more than eight feet long, could still squeeze her boneless body through an opening the size of an orange; an animal whose eight arms are covered with thousands of suckers that taste as well as feel; a mollusk with a beak like a parrot and venom like a snake and a tongue covered with teeth; a creature who can shape-shift, change color, and squirt ink. But most intriguing of all, recent research indicates that octopuses are remarkably intelligent.
Many times I have stood mesmerized by an aquarium tank, wondering, as I stared into the horizontal pupils of an octopus’s large, prominent eyes, if she was staring back at me—and if so, what was she thinking?
Not long ago, a question like this would have seemed foolish, if not crazy. How can an octopus know anything, much less form an opinion? Octopuses are, after all, “only” invertebrates—they don’t even belong with the insects, some of whom, like dragonflies and dung beetles, at least seem to show some smarts. Octopuses are classified within the invertebrates in the mollusk family, and many mollusks, like clams, have no brain.
Only recently have scientists accorded chimpanzees, so closely related to humans we can share blood transfusions, the dignity of having a mind. But now, increasingly, researchers who study octopuses are convinced that these boneless, alien animals—creatures whose ancestors diverged from the lineage that would lead to ours roughly 500 to 700 million years ago—have developed intelligence, emotions, and individual personalities. Their findings are challenging our understanding of consciousness itself.
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6474
11.10.2011
+ beyond ingredients
ever wonder about blue green algae that is in the green drink that naked and odwalla make? heres a little info on cyanobacteria.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria
Harmful Bloom in Lake Atitlán, Guatemala.jpg
English: A large bloom of cyanobacteria, more commonly known as blue-green algae, spread across the lake in green filaments and strands that are clearly visible in this simulated-natural-colour image. According to local news reports, the nutrients feeding the bloom in Lake Atitlán come from sewage, agricultural run off, and increased run off as a result of deforestation around the lake basin. The image reveals clearly why run-off would end up in the lake. Mountains and volcanoes encircle Lake Atitlán, ensuring that all rain that falls in the basin flows into the bowl-like lake. Silver-gray settlements, another source of pollution, ring the lake. Deforestation is a little bit more difficult to see. The forest is a darker shade of green than agricultural fields. The contrast between forested land and agriculture is most evident on the slopes of the San Pedro Volcano on the south-west shore of the lake. Large pale green squares cut into the dark green crown over the peak of the volcano.
Date
30 November 2009(2009-11-30)
Source
NASA Earth Obsevatory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria
Harmful Bloom in Lake Atitlán, Guatemala.jpg
English: A large bloom of cyanobacteria, more commonly known as blue-green algae, spread across the lake in green filaments and strands that are clearly visible in this simulated-natural-colour image. According to local news reports, the nutrients feeding the bloom in Lake Atitlán come from sewage, agricultural run off, and increased run off as a result of deforestation around the lake basin. The image reveals clearly why run-off would end up in the lake. Mountains and volcanoes encircle Lake Atitlán, ensuring that all rain that falls in the basin flows into the bowl-like lake. Silver-gray settlements, another source of pollution, ring the lake. Deforestation is a little bit more difficult to see. The forest is a darker shade of green than agricultural fields. The contrast between forested land and agriculture is most evident on the slopes of the San Pedro Volcano on the south-west shore of the lake. Large pale green squares cut into the dark green crown over the peak of the volcano.
Date
30 November 2009(2009-11-30)
Source
NASA Earth Obsevatory
10.24.2011
The Platonic Solids
Michael Paukner, Sacred Geometry 1
These five Platonic solids are ideal, primal models of crystal patterns that occur throughout the world of minerals in countless variations. These are the only five regular polyhedra, that is, the only five solids made from the same equilateral, equiangular polygons. They are geometrical forms which are said to act as a template from which all life springs. The aesthetic beauty and symmetry of the Platonic solids have made them a favorite subject of geometers for thousands of years. They are named after the ancient Greek philosopher Plato who theorized that the classical elements were constructed from the regular solids. To the Greeks, these solids symbolized fire, earth, air, spirit (or ether) and water.
The Platonic solids are also called “cosmic figures” and are the basic modules for Sacred Geometry.
wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid
10.22.2011
10.04.2011
Blue Purple Iridium
Blue Purple Iridium
Atomic Art is inspired by the mysterious and magical patterns of atoms as seen through modern microscopes.
The sublime patterns speak of the subtle energies that lie just beyond our perceptions.
At present, the art is based on Silicon and Iridium atoms. Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe and sits at the heart of all things digital. Iridium is one of the rarest of elements and is used in the production of semiconductors.
David Mankey has been creating Atomic Art since 1988 and has held many successful exhibitions including a ground breaking multimedia driven show at the National Science and Technology Centre and at the Front Gallery.
www.atomicart.net
8.04.2011
Eyes That Tell Stories
photographic exhibition by the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI)
Photographer: Jorg Sundermann
7.12.2011
+
Hair
Several Hairs on the Body of an Anopheles Moscito Larva
Courtesy of Nicole Ottawa
Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta Family
Magnification: 1000x
Vacuum: Low Vac 50 Pa
Voltage: 7 kV
Spot: 3
Working Distance: 7,6 mm
Detector: ETD + BSE
Head of a moth
Head of a moth, coloured by Margit Wallner
Courtesy of Angelika Reichmann
Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta Family
Magnification: 79
Horizontal Field Width: 1616
Vacuum: 0.4
Voltage: 10
Spot: 3
Working Distance: 12.4
Detector: SE
FEI Company
FEI is the world leader in electron microscopy technologies and applications that delivers subnanometer resolution for materials research.
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