Time-Lapse Video: Retreating Glacier
This remarkable image sequence captures a series of massive calving events at Columbia Glacier near Valdez, Alaska. Composed of 436 frames taken between May and September of 2007, it shows the glacier rapidly retreating by about half a mile (1.6 kilometers), a volume loss of some 0.4 cubic miles (1.67 cubic kilometers) of ice or 400 billion gallons (1.5 trillion liters) of water.
Google Earth reveals fish trap made from rocks 1,000 years ago off British coast
[M]odern technology has revealed this ancient fish trap, used at the time of the Norman Conquest.
They didn’t actually find it on Google Earth, but the image was there
Although it was only recently spotted on aerial photographs, an armchair archaeologist could have discovered the trap on Google Earth.
Google said the V-shaped structure has been visible on its collection of satellite and aerial photos since at least December 2006.
Sure enough, if you point Google Earth to the right spot, you can see it. Use these coordinates:
N 52° 06.550 W 004° 42.450
Works in Google Maps, too
The Big Picture: Undersea eruptions near Tonga
Scientists sailed out to have a closer look at the eruptions of an undersea volcano off the coast of Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean today. Tonga’s head geologist, Kelepi Mafi, said there was no apparent danger to residents of Nuku’alofa and others living on the main island of Tongatapu. Officials also said it may be related to a quake with a magnitude of 4.4 which struck last March 13 around 35 kilometers from the capital at a depth of nearly 150 kilometres. (I know this is an off-day posting, but really, thought the images were worth it – 12 photos total)
Panoramic view of the Amedee coral reef off New Caledonia
(I think it would be better if, after you panned around through pi or so, you saw a huge shark, but that’s just me)
If you scroll and look straight up, you’ll see Snell’s Window
Revealed: The secrets of belly button fluff
After three years of research, Georg Steinhauser, a chemist, has discovered a type of body hair that traps stray pieces of lint and draws them into the navel.
Dr Steinhauser made his discovery after studying 503 pieces of fluff from his own belly button.
[P]olymers in a solution that isn’t at a uniform temperature behaved in an unexpected way, with the longer molecules drifting toward the coldest region and the very shortest ones drifting toward the warmest region.
Reminiscent of the Brazil Nut sorting problem
Horrific beetle sex described at Not Exactly Rocket Science.
The duo studied beetles taken from 13 countries across the tropics, from Brazil to the USA, and from Nigeria to Oman. The genitals of these different populations are very varied and to study them under a microscope, Hotzy and Arnqvist first had to fluff their subjects. They anaesthetised the males with carbon dioxide, and erected their penises with an “artificial inflater” – a microscopic plastic tip connected to a pump. Under a microscope, they measured the length of the longest spines and the size of the entire spine-bearing area.
Probably NSFW if you happen to be employed by Coleopt-R-Us
When our eyes see colours, they are actually detecting the different wavelengths of the light hitting the retina. Colours are distinguished by their wavelengths, and the brain processes this information and produces a visual display that we experience as colour.
This means that colours only really exist within the brain – light is indeed travelling from objects to our eyes, and each object may well be transmitting/reflecting a different set of wavelengths of light; but what essentially defines a ‘colour’ as opposed to a ‘wavelength’ is created within the brain.
[…]
Magenta is an “extraspectral” color. Sir Isaac Newton noticed that magenta did not exist in the spectrum of colors from white light when he played with prisms. But when he superimposed the red end of the spectrum on to the blue end, he saw the color magenta