Newt lung epithelial cell in mitosis (240x)
This makes me think of some bioluminescent deep-sea creature.
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Newt lung epithelial cell in mitosis (240x)
This makes me think of some bioluminescent deep-sea creature.
Winners of the National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest 2012
You won’t learn much about life on this living planet if you don’t stop to look around every once in a while.
Above is a Japanese maple, captured in Portland, OR by Fred An. Check out the rest of the winners ar The Atlantic.
This week in science #3
Stunning satellite imagery of earth from The Guardian
The Petermann Glacier photo is particularly good
The argument rages on
Evidence for plate tectonics discovered on Mars
Watch yourself Curiosity
Next week: NASA announce news conference for record-breaking galaxy cluster
Tweet of the week
“Niece scolds me for Toms with sox. In my defense, they’re ankle sox.” – Bill Nye
Why the Mars Curiosity Rover’s Cameras Are Lame by Today’s Standards
Ever since NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars and started beaming back photographs earlier this week, people have been wondering, “why are the photos so bad?” The criticism seems merited: consumers these days are snapping great high-res photographs using phones that cost just hundreds of dollars, yet NASA can’t choose a camera with more than 2-megapixels of resolution for their $2.5 billion mission?
In an interview with dpreview, project manager Mike Ravine of Malin Space Science Systems — the company that provided three of the rover’s main cameras — explains that there were a couple main reasons behind the “lame” cameras: data transfer and fixed specifications. (PetaPixel)
Explains why the cameras on Curiosity are 2 mega-pixel with 2 gigs of storage when our phones have 8 mega-pixel and 64 gigs.
Mostly because it’s difficult to send a lot of data from 88 million miles away, and when the design was set in stone we were still in 2004.
A plant’s flower pod ready on the cusp of blooming. Beautiful. Possibly an allium?
If anybody knows, speak up!
Seriously, Cassini … you need to stop taking such amazing pictures and let some of the other satellites have some fun.
The rings of Saturn are framed by the moons Titan (rear) and the smaller Dione (front).
(via NASA/JPL and Space.com)
So much going on,this is great!
Close up of a moth’s wing (via)
Unreal. Look how thin each piece is!