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A cratered inferno
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Mercury's surface looks similar to our Moon's. Each is heavily cratered and made of rock. Mercury's diameter is about 4800 km, while the Moon's is slightly less at about 3500 km (compared with about 12,700 km for the Earth). But Mercury is unique in many ways. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, orbiting at about 1/3 the radius of the Earth's orbit. As Mercury slowly rotates, its surface temperature varies from an unbearably cold -180 degrees Celsius to an unbearably hot 400 degrees Celsius. The place nearest the Sun in Mercury's orbit changes slightly each orbit - a fact used by Albert Einstein to help verify the correctness of his then newly discovered theory of gravity: General Relativity. The above picture was taken by the only sp ...
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2714 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Why does water bridge form in the presense of electricity?
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If you fill two beakers with water, apply an electric voltage across them, and then separate them, you will form a water bridge. This phenomena was discover some 120 years ago and researchers believe it occurs because the voltage makes the water molecules line up, generating a dielectric tension that defies gravity, stopping the bridge from falling. Understanding how water bridges form could help engineers develop better electrowetting displays. ...
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2712 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Strange looking plants
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The island of Socotra is one of the most isolated non-volcanic landforms in the world. Sitting 240 km east of the Horn of Africa and 380 km south of the Arabian Peninsula, its geographic isolation over millions of years has ensured that a third of its plant species are found nowhere else on Earth. Clockwise from the top are dragon blood trees, desert roses, and a native succulent, Dorstenia gigas. ...
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2632 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Liver genes play a role in sleeping
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New research has shown that liver genes play a key role in regulating our body clock, and could be the target for treatments that help shift workers and international travellers 'reset' their internal rhythm and reduce their risk of obesity and diabetes.
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2616 |
savio |
10 years ago |
These aren't snakes, people - they are lizards
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Four species of legless lizard have been identified in the sand dunes of Antioch, California. This picture introduces Anniella grinnelli, one of the recently found species. It has a bright yellow belly and a lilac back with deep purple lines, and was named after Joseph Grinnell, the first director of the Berkeley Zoology Museum.
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2603 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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2581 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Self-exploding ants
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Carpenter ants ( Camponotus cylindricus) are found in Borneo and expel the lethal sticky substance to defend their colony. Both ant and invader are killed in these attacks; they fall from the canopy as a pair into the leaf litter below, to eventually be eaten by something. Most of the bodies of the south-east Asian Camponotus cylindricus ants are for storage of the deadly secretion. The insects react quickly - when researchers lightly touched them with forceps their abdomen walls ruptured. ...
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2509 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Upgraded Armor
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The most thing we should worry about when entering the lab, and what was drilled into our minds throught all our science classes and our courses laboratory introductory session, was our safety. With regards to germs, microbes, bacteria, viruses etc, and their stunning ability to evolve into a stronger species rather rapidly considering the time-span through which scientists have been practicing science, smart people have managed to use solar energy in such a way that reduces our anxiety around those organisms much more than 70% ethanol and heat. At least in the dental industry, the tools used by dentists have been protected - to an extent - in a method, I personally view as brilliant. "First uses of new solar energy technology: Killing germ ...
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2506 |
ehd123 |
10 years ago |
Giraffes come in various forms
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This is the giraffe weevil from Madagascar, which, as you might have guessed, gets its name from its long neck. Males use their extra long necks for fighting, while females use theirs to roll a leaf nest, into which an egg is laid during reproduction.
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2488 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
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