Needle playing a record | Victrola Coffee Roasters
Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the needle (stylus) of a record player in a groove on a record. A record is used to store sound. It is produced by a machine with a head which vibrates in time to the sound being recorded. This cuts a groove in the record which varies according to the vibrations. A needle can then reproduce these vibrations as it runs along the groove and these, when amplified, produce the original sound.
(via wanderlustfloopowder)
Wow. The Blackfish trailer gave me the chills. I will never support Sea World, ever. This riveting documentary will be released internationally in July. Click here for screening dates & locations.
Very intrigued by this trailer for Blackfish, a new documentary about Tilikum, a performing whale at SeaWorld that swallowed its trainer whole.
“Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the film attempts to uncover what caused the incident, exposing never before seen footage and interviews from the scandalous but widely hushed up case. We also see the true nature of the corrupt and profitable sea-park industry, including the disillusionment of workers who have had their safety jeopardised and the extraordinarily cruel treatment of orcas in captivity.”
The film is scheduled to be released in the UK in July.
The Astonishing Annual Red Crab Migration
Named one of the planet’s most breathtaking migrations, the Christmas Island red crab exodus is a natural phenomenon that continues to astonish.
Making it onto CNN Travel’s recent list of the “10 most spectacular wildlife migrations,” the island’s annual red crab migration is an astounding event that involves the movement of millions of vividly colored crabs as they leave their in-land homes to breed and release eggs into the sea.
An Australian territory, Christmas Island lies some 2,600 kilometers north-west of Perth in the middle of the Indian Ocean. While just 1,500 people live there, it is home to an estimated 120 million crabs.
(via neonsnowman)
(via ceyren)
The chrysalis of the Metallic Mechanitis butterfly from Costa Rica.
ifuckinglovescience
Japan’s new super-fast L0 train floats above the ground and can go 500 km/h
This week, the first test runs for Japan’s new 500 kilometre-per-hour magnetic floating supertrain was a success.
The new generation of “L0 Trains” — set to be deployed in 2027 on the Tokyo-Nagoya line — are not the first “Mag Lev” (Magnetic Levitation) trains, but they are the first to regularly break 500 km/h.
The superfast trains use magnetic levitation instead of wheels to reduce friction and to allow the train to run better in all weather. The magnetic trains can also speed up and slow down more quickly than a traditional wheeled train. (JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images)
Composition of my favourite gifs I’ve posted on That Science Guy over the last few months.
+1 for the bb popping bubble
(via wanderlustfloopowder)
Fabergé Fractals by Tom Beddard
(via abluegirl)
WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - Water levels in U.S.aquifers, the vast underground storage areas tapped foragriculture, energy and human consumption, between 2000 and 2008 dropped at a rate that was almost three times as great as any time during the 20th century, U.S. officials said on Monday.The accelerated decline in the subterranean reservoirs is due to a combination of factors, most of them linked to rising population in the United States, according to Leonard Konikow, a research hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.
The big rise in water use started in 1950, at the time of an economic boom and the spread of U.S. suburbs. However, the steep increase in water use and the drop in groundwater levels that followed World War 2 were eclipsed by the changes during the first years of the 21st century, the study showed.
As consumers, farms and industry used more water starting in 2000, aquifers were also affected by climate changes, with less rain and snow filtering underground to replenish what was being pumped out, Konikow said in a telephone interview from Reston, Virginia.
Depletion of groundwater can cause land to subside, cut yields from existing wells, and diminish the flow of water from springs and streams.
Where is all the groundwater going?
(via dead-until-dark)
Stranger Visions by Heather Dewey-Hagborg
This super interesting project consists of 3D printed portraits based on DNA samples taken from objects found on the streets of Brooklyn (like gum, cigarettes and hair). Dewey-Hagborg worked with a DIY biology lab called Genspace, where she met a number of biologists who taught her everything she now knows about molecular biology and DNA. Via an interview with the artist:
So I extract the DNA in the lab and then I amplify certain regions of it using a technique called PCR – Polymerase Chain Reaction. This allows me to study certain regions of the genome that tend to vary person to person, what are called SNPs or Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms.
I send the results of my PCR reactions off to a lab for sequencing and what I get back are basically text files filled with sequences of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs, the nucleotides that compose DNA. I align these using a bioinformatics program and determine what allele is present for a particular SNP on each sample.
Then I feed this information into a custom computer program I wrote which takes all these values which code for physical genetic traits and parameterizes a 3d model of a face to represent them. For example gender, ancestry, eye color, hair color, freckles, lighter or darker skin, and certain facial features like nose width and distance between eyes are some of the features I am in the process of studying.
I add some finishing touches to the model in 3d software and then export it for printing on a 3d printer. I use a Zcorp printer which prints in full color using a powder type material, kind of like sand and glue.
(via dead-until-dark)
Ash cloud from May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens over Ephrata, Washington (230 km (145 mi) downwind).
(via abluegirl)
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