Tag: facts

April 16, 2013 at 4:47 pm

Picture of the Day: Atop Earth’s Atmosphere

Picture of the Day: Atop Earth's Atmosphere

ATOP EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE Photograph by NASA Earth Observatory In this breathtaking photograph we see the crescent moon through the top of Earth’s atmosphere. The image was taken above 21.5°N, 113.3°E by International Space Station crew Expedition 13 on July 20, 2006 over the South China Sea, just south of Macau. The atmosphere…

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April 15, 2013 at 4:22 pm

Picture of the Day: Desiccation Cracks

Picture of the Day: Desiccation Cracks

DESICCATION CRACKS Photograph by Hannes Grobe Desiccation is the state of extreme dryness, or the process of extreme drying. A desiccant is a hygroscopic (attracts and holds water) substance that induces or sustains such a state in its local vicinity in a moderately sealed container. In biology and ecology, desiccation refers to…

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March 20, 2013 at 3:21 pm

The Ornate Protective Cases of Caddisfly Larvae

The Ornate Protective Cases of Caddisfly Larvae

Photograph by Bob Henricks Caddisflies are an order (Trichoptera) of insects with approximately 12,000 described species. They can be described as small moth-like insects with two pairs of hairs membranous wings. One of the most interesting characteristics of the caddisfly is the ornate and highly intricate protective cases they build as larvae. The caddisfly…

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March 9, 2013 at 7:04 pm

Picture of the Day: Calibrating a Digital Billboard

Picture of the Day: Calibrating a Digital Billboard

CALIBRATING A DIGITAL BILLBOARD Photograph by fungiside on Reddit What seems like a bad (or awesome) acid trip is actually a calibration test for a digital billboard. The video (although it appears as an image here) is a test to make sure all of the individual panels are working together to make…

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February 18, 2013 at 2:48 pm

What 200 Calories of Various Foods Looks Like

What 200 Calories of Various Foods Looks Like

We all know some foods have a much higher Calorie content than others, but how many of us know what that difference actually looks like? Information website wiseGEEK sought to answer this question way back on January 3, 2007. The result was a fascinating article that compares over 71 foods! The images below are…

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February 10, 2013 at 4:49 pm

How Diving Seabirds Hunt Fish

How Diving Seabirds Hunt Fish

Gannets are large sea birds that can be found in the North Atlantic as well as the coastal seas of Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The birds fish by diving from a height into the sea and pursuing their prey underwater. The technique, known as plunge diving, allows birds to use the energy…

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December 13, 2012 at 10:51 am

The Plants that Fruits Come From

The Plants that Fruits Come From

In botany, a fruit is a part of a flowering plant that derives from specific tissues of the flower, one or more ovaries, and in some cases accessory tissues. Fruits are the means by which these plants disseminate seeds. Many of them that bear edible fruits, in particular, have propagated with the movements of…

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December 11, 2012 at 7:56 pm

Picture of the Day: The Vapor Cone

Picture of the Day: The Vapor Cone

THE VAPOR CONE Photograph by Joe Oliva/U.S. Air Force An F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot with the Viper East Demonstration Team from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., creates a ‘cone’ of condensation on Aug. 21, 2010, as he nears Mach 1 during a flyby at an open house at Volk Field Air National…

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December 3, 2012 at 3:24 pm

Lake Hillier: The Pink Lake in Australia

Lake Hillier: The Pink Lake in Australia

Photo by Jean Paul Ferrero/Ardea/Caters News (via Exposing the Truth Lake Hillier is a pink-coloured lake on Middle Island in Western Australia. Middle island is the largest of the islands and islets that make up the Recherche Archipelago, a group of about 105 islands and over 1,200 ‘obstacles to shipping’. The tiny lake only…

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December 1, 2012 at 3:10 pm

Inside Amazon’s ‘Chaotic Storage’ Warehouses

Inside Amazon's 'Chaotic Storage' Warehouses

As the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon needs somewhere to put all of those products. The solution? Giant warehouses. Eighty to be exact. Strategically located near key shipping hubs around the world. The warehouses themselves are massive, with some over 1.2 million square feet in size (111,484 sq m). And at the heart of…

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