-
aamukherjee Entropie -
alchymista Alchymista -
crownedrose Hymn To The Sea -
epistemophobiarunsdeep Falling Over Myself. -
expose-the-light Quarks to Quasars -
ikenbot cwl -
pieceinthepuzzlehumanity This Is The Right One -
project-argus Hello, Universe. -
torgothegreat God Delusion
Albert Einstein’s office at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., photographed on the day of his death, April 18, 1955.
ikenbot
Eclipse from Outer Space
by A4size-ska
Note: This is art and NOT an image of the 2012 May 20 eclipse from orbit largely promoted as such via tumblr. Don’t believe everything you read.
Eclipse Reflections
by Celestyn M Brozek
Afterlife: Making Rotten Food Beautiful
Most people have pulled long-forgotten vegetables from their refrigerator’s depths at least once, and just the memory is enough to make a stomach turn. But one man’s fridge mold is another man’s still life. Estonian artist Heikki Leis’ Afterlife is a veritable rotting cornucopia of vegetables photographed long past their prime.
“I was inspired by some potatoes I had once left out in a pot for too long. They had started to mold and on closer examination the colors and textures looked interesting enough to take some photos,” Leis wrote in an e-mail.
Leis then started experimenting with various fruits and vegetables. He sometimes let them decay for two months, keeping them covered so they wouldn’t dry out. When Leis finished, he was truly finished. “I’m tempted to say I ate them, but the truth is I just threw them away,” he said.
When lightning strikes: Photographer’s Bay Bridge image goes viral
San Fransisco shutterbug says he has no idea how the photo of lightning striking the Bay Bridge went viral so quickly.
Just an incredible image of a school of sting rays
The photo above was taken by Google VP Sebastian Thrun while wearing Google Glass. What’s so remarkable about this photo is that he took it while spinning his son as seen in the picture, and wearing Glass at the same time. This perspective would not have been captured without this technology, which leads us to think what amazing photos and video may we capture in the future from a perspective such as this?
You can read a bit more about the technology and the changes it could make to our future over at io9.com.
crownedrose10 Years of Aqua Satellite’s Incredible Images of Earth From Space
The view of Earth from space has transformed our understanding of, as well as our admiration for, the planet. The data and images collected by Earth-observing satellites have been used in thousands of scientific papers, helped us better respond to natural disasters, improved weather and climate forecasts, enlightened us about our impact on Earth and captivated us with beauty.
One of the stars of NASA’s fleet of satellites is Aqua. The satellite is named for its ability to measure water vapor in the atmosphere, water in the oceans, as well as ice and snow. When it was launched on May 4, 2002, scientists expected it to work for three to five years. But its six instruments have been functioning perfectly for 10 years, gathering 29 million gigabytes of data in that time.
One of the most useful and impressive instruments aboard Aqua is the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, which measures visible and infrared radiation, and produces truly amazing, incredibly beautiful images of Earth. We’ve chosen some of our favorite MODIS images for this gallery in celebration of a decade of work. With funding for Earth-observing satellites on the decline, let’s hope Aqua keeps going for 10 more years.
A pinhole camera created from an egg. Pinhole cameras are often used in introductory physics courses to illustrate the principles of optics. The following was taken from a lab exercise at Rice Univerity:
A pinhole camera consists of a darkened box or room with a small hole at one end. Because light travels in straight lines, the hole permits rays from each point of an object to fall only within a small circle on the opposite wall, effectively forming an image. As the pinhole is made smaller the image will become more distinct until the hole is so small that diffraction becomes important.
Although pinhole cameras were probably known to the ancient Greeks, they are still used in preference to lens systems in some situations. Pinholes are obviously useful for imaging x- rays or particle streams, where no lens materials are available, but even for light they offer complete freedom from linear distortion, virtually infinite depth of focus and a very wide angular field. Modest resolution and a very dim image are the disadvantages. Overall, pinhole cameras are worth study because they are useful and also because they illustrate some interesting physics.
