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Curious Cat Science and Egineering blog full tag cloud
See more photographs of remains of albatross chicks on the Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific.
To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, none of the plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the untouched stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.
Related: Dead Zones in the Ocean – Vast Garbage Float in the Pacific Ocean – Sharpshinned Hawk – Biodegradable Plastic Bags and Bottles – 2,000 Species New to Science from One Island
This image looks like Albert Einstein up close. If you back up maybe 3-5 meters it will look like Marylin Monroe. Image by Dr. Aude Oliva.Hybrid images paper by Aude Oliva, MIT; Antonio Torralba, MIT; and Philippe G. Schyns University of Glasgow.
Very cool stuff.
This is just a smaller image of the above (all I did was shrink the size). For me, this already looks like Marilyn Monroe, but also needs a shorter distance to see the image seem to change.
Related: Illusions, Optical and Other – How Our Brain Resolves Sight – Seeing Patterns Where None Exists – Magenta is a Color – posts on scientific explanations of what we experience – Computational Visual Cognition Laboratory at MIT
Photo by sbisson from Geneva, Switzerland, November 2006 .
NeXT is the computer company Steve Jobs founded after he left Apple. Then he left NeXT to buy out Pixar. And then, of course, went back to Apple.
Related: The Web is 15 Years Old – The Second 5,000 Days of the Web – 2007 Draper Prize to Berners-Lee – Google Server Hardware Design
photo of hanging flume overlook in Colorado, by John Hunter, Creative Commons Attribution.___________________
While driving from Dinosaur National Monument to Mesa Verde National Park last year I passed the sight above with the remnants of a hanging flume. The Montrose Placer Mining Company built a 13 mile canal and flume to deliver water from the San Miguel River for gold mining operations. The last 5 miles of the flume clung to the wall of the canyon itself, running along the cliff face in the photo above (see more photos).
Constructed between 1888 and 1891, the 4 foot deep 5 foot 4 inch wide hanging flume carried 23,640,000 gallons of water in a 24 hour period. The mining operations used water and sluice boxes to separate the gold from lighter materials (dirt and gravel).
The technology was not yet available to pump the water directly from the river at the necessary volume and pressure to wash the gold from the gravel, therefore they constructed the flume to transport the water.
Related: Mount Saint Helens Photos – photos of Manhattan (Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building…) – C&O Towpath – Monocacy Aqueduct to Calico Rocks
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image created by Dr. Jean-Yves Sgro, Institute for Molecular Virology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, from published X-ray data. larger imageSequences capture the code of the common cold
“We’ve had bits and pieces of these things for a long time,” says Ann Palmenberg, of UW-Madison’s Institute for Molecular Virology and the lead author of the new study. “Now, we have the full genome sequences and we can put them into evolutionary perspective.”
As its name implies, the common cold is an inescapable, highly contagious pathogen. Humans are constantly exposed to cold viruses, and each year adults may endure two to four infections, while schoolchildren can catch as many as 10 colds.
“We know a lot about the common cold virus,” Palmenberg explains, “but we didn’t know how their genomes encoded all that information. Now we do, and all kinds of new things are falling out.”
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The newly sequenced viruses also show, says Palmenberg, why it is unlikely we will ever have an effective, all-purpose cold vaccine: The existing reservoir of viruses worldwide is huge and, according to the new study, they have a tendency to swap genetic sequences when cells are infected by more than one virus, a phenomenon that can lead to new virus strains and clinical manifestations.
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The ability of different cold virus strains to swap genes and make entirely new strains was thought to be impossible, notes Claire M. Fraser-Liggett, a co-author of the new study and director of the Institute for Genome Sciences and professor of medicine and microbiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “There is the possibility that this could lead to the emergence of a new rhinovirus strain with fairly dramatic properties,” says Fraser-Liggett.
Related: Common Cold Alters the Activity of Genes – Learning How Viruses Evade the Immune System – Lethal Secrets of 1918 Flu Virus – images of snowflakes
The first flowers of Spring in my yard.
Related: What Sparks Plant Growth – What Are Flowers For? – Curious Cat Science Search
© Farid Belbachir/ZSL/OPNAThe first systematic camera trap survey across the central Sahara, identified four different Saharan cheetahs using spot patterns unique to each individual. ‘The Saharan cheetah is critically endangered, yet virtually nothing is known about the population, so this new evidence, and the ongoing research work, is hugely significant,’ said Dr Sarah Durant, Zoological Society of London Senior Research Fellow.
Farid Belbachir, who is implementing the field survey, adds: ‘This is an incredibly rare and elusive subspecies of cheetah and current population estimates, which stand at less than 250 mature individuals, are based on guesswork. This study is helping us to turn a corner in our understanding, providing us with information about population numbers, movement and ecology.’
The Northwest African cheetah is found over the Sahara desert and savannas of North and West Africa, respectively, including Algeria, Niger, Mali, Benin, Burkina-Faso and Togo. The populations are very fragmented and small, with the biggest thought to be found in Algeria.
Read the full press release
Related: Cheetahs Released into the Wild – Using Cameras Monitoring To Aid Conservation Efforts – Jaguars Back in the Southwest USA – Rare Chinese Mountain Cat
Photo of leaf-footed bug by RobertaThe Growing With Science Blog by Roberta, an entomologist, is full of interesting posts on bugs and more. For example – Bug of the Week: Leaf-footed Bug
Leaf-footed bugs have sucking mouthparts and sometimes feed of fruit such as cactus fruit, oranges or peaches. Although we do have citrus, I think this one is a visitor from our neighbors’ yard. Our neighbors have a pomegranate bush. Pomegranates are one of the leaf-footed bugs’ favorite foods.
Like many of their relatives, these true bugs can give off an odor when handled.
I was adding in some related links and the first one, I was adding, Backyard Wildlife: Great Spreadwing Damselfly, Roberta had commented on to let me know it was a Great Spreadwing Damselfly. It is a small web.
Related: 2 Mysterious Species in the UK – Cool Looking Florescent Green Beetle: Six-spotted Tiger Beetle – Big Spider
Photo of a plane that crash landed in the Hudson River, New York, by jkrums.emergency landing in river by New York City
The United States Coast Guard has reported that they have sent units to the scene of the incident, and that a nearby ferry was giving life jackets to survivors. According to witnesses, the plane landed in the river, making a large splash in the water, at a somewhat gradual angle.
“This looked like a controlled descent,” said Bob Read, who witnessed the incident from his office.
A source told The Wall Street Journal that the plane initially was maneuvering to make an emergency landing at nearby Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, but lost too much altitude and had to ditch in the river.
Unconfirmed reports are citing the pilot as saying that the plane encountered a flock of geese and that some of them went into each of the jet’s engines, leading to a loss of powered flight. Passengers told the press that they heard a loud bang shortly after takeoff.
A Federal Aviation Administration official said that the plane was only airborne for three minutes. For these rare waterlandings, pilots are trained to bring the plane down as they would on land, but with the landing gear still stowed.
How often do birds cause plane crashes?
Related: Why Planes Fly: What They Taught You In School Was Wrong – Engineering the Boarding of Airplanes
Photograph by Dr Tin-Yam Chan, University of Keelung
This squat lobster, found in waters 150 meters (492 feet) deep, is one of the new species. Eighty percent of the world’s species remain to be discovered, notes French scientist Philippe Bouchet, one of the expedition’s leaders.
A World of Crabs from One Tiny Island
Related: Most Dinosaurs Remain Undiscovered – Ocean Life – Huge Gorilla Population Found in Congo – Still Just a Lizard – 50 Species of Diatoms
Wilson A. Bentley pioneered the photography of snowflakes.
The photo above was taken by Bentley in 1902 (see more).
Related: 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Snow – Why is it Colder at Higher Elevations? – Clouds are Alive With Bacteria – science and engineering art – Glacier National Park Photos
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Here is an action shot of a bird diving at a crow in my backyard, presumably to get the crow to leave. I noticed this for going on for several weeks (follow link for better view of the dive-bombing bird). The crow didn’t seem to mind too much most of the time.
I visited Madison this week and saw 4 wild turkeys wandering around in a residential area. I didn’t have my camera handy however, so I didn’t get a photo 
It was a strange and cool site.
Related: Cool Crow Research – Backyard Wildlife: Sharpshinned Hawk – posts on birds
Crows Carry Cameras for Science:
Photo of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC by John Hunter. The museum is the newest addition to the collection of Smithsonian museums on the Mall. The second photo is of a Mayan calendar. Photos can be used with attribution.
Related: Botanical Garden – C&O Towpath near Monocacy Aqueduct – Museum of Science in Boston
If you know the what type of dragonfly is in the photo, please add a comment (update: a comment indicates it is not a dragonfly but a Great Spreadwing Archilestes grandis damselfly – I really enjoy getting feedback like this. It appears the most common way to differentiate the two is how the wings are at rest but the Spreadwing is an exception). I had a small preying mantis drop on my head, and then the ground, a month ago in my backyard. But when I got my digital camera I couldn’t find it again. The variety of insects you can see can be amazing, especially if you don’t use poisons and chemicals in your yard.
Photo by John Hunter, creative commons attribution license.
Related: Backyard Wildlife: Sharpshinned Hawk – Backyard Wildlife: Fox – posts on insects
Leopard savaging a crocodile caught on camera:
The giant cat raced out of cover provided by scrub and bushes to surprise the crocodile, which was swimming nearby. A terrible and bloody struggle ensued. Eventually, onlookers were amazed to see the leopard drag the crocodile from the water as the reptile fought back.
Eventually the big cat was able to sit on top of the reptile and suffocate it. In the past, there have been reports of crocodiles killing leopards, but this is believed to the first time that the reverse scenario has been observed.
Related: Water Buffaloes, Lions and Crocodiles Oh My – Far Eastern Leopard, the Rarest Big Cat – Leaping Tigress – Bornean Clouded Leopard
Photos from my hike in Starved Rock State Park, Illinois in 2006.
Related: Appalachian Trail Photos – Grand Teton National Park – Bull Run Trail, Virginia – Curious Cat Travel Photo posts
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