Picture of the Week: "Jewel Caterpillar"

Photo taken by Gerardo Aizpuru

This was too interesting for me to not share it with everyone. I learned a lot from reading about this wicked looking larvae. Number one: there is this awesome website for posting nature finds called Project Noah where you can post pictures of wildlife and add the exact location where it was spotted. It acts as a social network for citizen scientists who can help each other identify the awesome creatures in their area. Number two: gelatinous caterpillars exist and they are very very pretty!  Found amongst some Mangroves in Mexico by Gerardo Aizpuru, this unusual animal was identified by one Project Noah user as Acraga coa, a buttercup colored moth. Number three: there are many moths with larvae of this type belonging to the Dalceridae family. Ferris Jabr, a blogger from Scientific American has the scoop on these glass-like organisms. The pictures in the article are awesome and just wait until you read about their sticky, gooey, spine armor. 

Picture of the Week: RSMAS Amateur Underwater Photography Competition

Photograph courtesy Todd Aki, RSMAS

 

Winners of this year's University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science underwater photography competition for 2012 were recently announced. This stunning sea nettle was captured by Todd Aki in Monterey, California and was voted Fan Favorite, a first for the contest.  Portraits, macro, and wide-angle photos were honored from entries taken across the planet. Our seas and oceans have a lot to offer and this contest showcases their beauty and variety. Check out the other winners at the school's website here.

Picture of the Week: A Look Inside a Rocket Military Factory

Photo Credit Lana Sator

Although I have no idea how this shot was achieved, self proclaimed adventurer, Lana Sator of Russia, sneaked into a rocket factory a little more than a month ago and took some absolutely fascinating photos.  This is just one of many images she acquired by snooping around the grounds. On her live journal, she claims that it was as simple as basically hopping a fence.  Legal or not, these images are a stunning look into military manufacturing and the amount of science and engineering required. Some have likened the images to something from the Death Star, but science fiction may be more real than we think.

Picture of the Week: OLED TV Debuts at CES

Photo Credit: LG

This 55 inch TV was a show stopper at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week.  The screen itself is only 4 millimeters thick, making it ideal for an on the wall screen experience. Unfortunately, this requires some of the hardware to be contained in a separate box, and the current price will set you back around $8,000 when the LG releases them for public sale later this year. OLED (organic light-emitting diode) based screens use less power than LED and plasma screens and can have higher resolutions. The individual diode is a semiconductor 200 times thinner than a human hair that emits light when electricity is applied. This technology is so thin, that the screen is actually printed on a single layer of glass using inkjet technology. Scientists and developers are excited for the potential of OLED screens to be printed on flexible surfaces, possibly even clothing, in the future. Because of high cost, these screens are currently most common for small applications like cell phones, but as LG has shown, this technology is on to bigger and better things. If you want more information about OLEDs, check out this great review from How Stuff Works.

Picture of the Week: Lum the Red Panda

Photo Credit: Dane County and Henry Vilas Zoo

With his beady black eyes and puffy white cheeks, Lum may be the cutest new addition to the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison.  He was brought over from a zoo in Cincinatti for one job and one job only and it's a tough one.  His new roommate is a very picky lady, but zookeepers hope Lum can work his magic and maybe by July there will be a new mini red panda or two crawling around the exhibit. Red pandas are fascinating animals with no close relatives on Earth.  They are thought to be very distantly related to raccoons, skunks, and weasels, but have characteristics similar to the Giant Panda including a false thumb and a great desire for bamboo. In recent times, their habitats have been fractionated due to human occupation and deforestation, and they do not breed quickly in the wild or in captivity. Estimates put their wild population somewhere between 16,000 and 2,500, and they are listed as "Vulnerable"by IUCN standards. Here in Madison, we are lighting some candles, playing some Barry White, and crossing our fingers that this couple will contribute to keeping this species alive.

Picture of the Week: Last Day in Lab

Counting cells in my lab

This picture is in honor of my last day as a graduate student.  It was taken by Shawn Jackson for the Miyamoto lab website awhile back.  Though it's hard to see in the picture, I'm totally blushing and laughing because I realized he was standing there with a camera.  I will miss this lab terribly.  Thank you to each and every person in the lab, on floor six, and in my program who made my time here awesome and worthwhile. You will be missed!

Picture of the Week: The Fairy Wasp

Photo Credit: A. Polilov

There has been a lot of buzz about this miniscule insect this week after a publication by Alexey Polilov demonstrated that the fairy wasp's nervous system operates with only 5% of the nucleated neurons of similar species. As you can see from the picture, which is on a 200 micron scale, the wasp is as tiny as some unicellular organisms such as the paramecium and the amoeba. The study showed that in order to exist as such a tiny multicellular creature, some structural sacrifices must be made. Thus, the loss of the nuclei from the nerve cells. This aquatic wasp is so incredibly tiny that it lays its eggs inside the eggs of other insects that also live in ponds. For more on this tiny creature, read Ed Yong's overview of this paper at Discover Blogs.

Picture of the Week: Thanksgiving edition

Public Domain Photo

In honor of the holiday, here is a picture of the fall cranberry harvest.  Made famous by the cheeky Ocean Spray commercials, cranberries are harvested in these large bogs.  Grown in lowlands, the cranberries float off of their vines when the fields are flooded for harvest thanks to large air pockets in the berry.  These beautiful scarlet berries have been a big crop up here in Wisconsin since the 1860s, where they are now grown in 20 counties.  They are considered one of the healthiest fruits around for their high antioxidant concentrations, but beware the trap of the dried cranberry. Until a few years ago, these snacks were more than 50% added sugar....now they are 51% cranberry and 49% sugar.  If you would like more information about cranberries, don't miss the Thanksgiving time lectures by Dr. Robert Skirvin at U of Illinois. He taught me everything I know about these little bouncing berries.

Picture of the Week: Diatoms

Photo Credit: Wikimedia commons

No, these little beauties aren't crystals in a kaleidoscope. These unicellular organisms are diatoms, a diverse group of algae that normally reside in fresh and salt water, and one of my personal favorites to look at.  The rigid shapes you see are created by an outer wall made of silica, which can remain in sediment and has contributed greatly to the study of algae evolution. Currently these little guys are being studied in the nanotechnology field due to their itty bitty valve structures that could be useful for medical technologies and solar energy cells.

Picture of the Week Part 2: Visual Science

Photo Credit: Carl Zimmer from the book Science Ink

I know I've already shown a picture this week, but I thought this was too beautiful to not share. At first glance you see a butterfly, but take a second look and see Darwin's finches.  Stunning.  This photo appears in a new compilation by Carl Zimmer called Science Ink, a book full of beautiful and personal dedications to science in the form of tattoo.  I recommend everyone pick up a copy! 

Picture of the week: Sun Spot

Photo credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory/NASA 

This sun spot, discovered by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory measures nearly eight times the size of Earth. Magnetic activity around sun spots cause solar flares, and X-class flares can be expected as the spot turns toward Earth.