|
Subject |
Comments |
Views |
Author |
Date Written |
Urodid moth cocoon
|
view preview
Check out this amazing image of am urodid moth cocoon. According to entomologist and Amazon explorer Phil Torres, It has a really beautiful woven lattice structure that hangs about a foot below a leaf on a thin silk string. This is an unusual structure because the pupa, resting inside the cocoon, seems fairly exposed to the elements. The hanging likely helps to prevent predation from ants, and the bright orange color may serve as an aposematic signal to predators to prevent it from getting eaten. The tube part at the bottom is the 'escape hatch' from which it eventually will exit as an adult moth. There is not a lot of research that has been done on the evolutionary origin structure - this is one of the many mysteries of the Amazon you can c ...
|
|
|
0 |
10250 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
|
0 |
5968 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
How Japanese kids learn to multiply in primary school
|
view preview
The lines over the circles are colour coded. Notice the single red line and 3 blue lines representing 13 groups together while the single green and 2 black lines take their own group. Simply draw your first group of lines in one direction then your second group of lines going over the first, count the groups of intersections and there\'s your answer.
|
|
|
0 |
7556 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
|
0 |
5759 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
What happens to spiders when they are on drugs?
|
view preview
In 1995 a group of NASA scientists repeated and refined some earlier tests on the effect that various drugs have on the web building abilities of the common garden spider. They tested the the effect of caffeine, benzedrine, marijuana and chloral hydrate and as you can see the results were pretty extreme!
|
|
|
0 |
6004 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Sun ballet
|
view preview
Sometimes, the Sun itself seems to dance. On just this past New Years Eve, for example, NASAs Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamic Observatory spacecraft imaged an impressive prominence erupting from the Suns surface. The dramatic explosion was captured in ultraviolet light in the above time lapse video covering four hours. Of particular interest is the tangled magnetic field that directs a type of solar ballet for the hot plasma as it falls back to the Sun. The scale of the disintegrating prominence is huge -- the entire Earth would easily fit under the flowing curtain of hot gas. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month, and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection expelling hot gas into the Solar System. The energy mechanism that creates a ...
|
|
|
0 |
5168 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Meet the goliath frog
|
view preview
Meet the goliath frog! This beast is the largest extant anuran on Earth. They can grow up to 33 cm (13 inches) from snout to vent, and can weigh up to 3.2 kg. They have a fairly small habitat range, mainly in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea and sadly their numbers are dwindling due to habitat destruction. They are also hunted for both consumption and for the pet trade.
|
|
|
0 |
8856 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
|
0 |
5924 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Tractor beam
|
view preview
Scientists at University of St Andrews in Scotland and the Institute of Scientific Instruments (ISI) in the Czech Republic have designed a minute but completely functional tractor beam. Reminiscent of Star Trek, they use a beam of light to draw objects towards the light source on a microscopic level.
|
|
|
0 |
5779 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
|
0 |
6018 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
The flightless bird from New Zealand
|
view preview
The kakapo is a strange little flightless bird native to New Zealand. Sadly there are now only 126 kakapo left in conservation areas, where they eat a range of plants. But researchers who have been studying ancient poo samples have recently found that around 900 years ago kakapo ate a lot of pollen from a root parasite known as Hades flower. The two no longer exist in the same place and Hades flower is also rare, which begs the question - were the birds responsible for pollinating it? Further research needs to be done, but it is an interesting conservation link. ...
|
|
|
0 |
5800 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Atelopus varius
|
view preview
This is the Costa Rican variable harlequin toad ( Atelopus varius), also known as the clown frog (in spite of the fact that it is a true toad). They once ranged from Costa Rica to Panama, but are now listed as critically endangered and reduced to a single population in Costa Rica. The variable harlequin toads conspicuous colouring serves as a warning to predators of the toads toxicity.
|
|
|
0 |
5266 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Have you ever seen a pink-necked green pigeon?
|
view preview
This is the pink-necked green pigeon ( Treron vernans) and it is honestly not Photoshopped. They\'re found in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical mangrove forests, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.
|
|
|
0 |
7623 |
duddy |
11 years ago |