Cyber-Enhanced Working Dog (CEWD)
It may sound like the stuff of fiction, but researchers have developed a device aimed at facilitating two-way communication between people and dogs. The device has many practical applications for a wide range of situations – from search and rescue missions to everyday training. One of the research team members is pictured with his cyber-canine companion.
Yes, But How Does It Smell?
This beautiful mosaic is in fact a super-close-up image of garlic stained with toluidine blue. The image is part of a series from Rob Kesseler, who specializes in dramatic microscopy of everyday plants.
Planetary Formation By A Distant Star
At the very center of the image above is the sun-like star HL Tau, surrounded by rings of dust and gas. You may never have heard of HL Tau, but this picture will go down in the astronomic annals as the first high-resolution image of the birth of a planetary system. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international observatory in northern Chile, scientists were able to capture this image, showcasing the early stages of a planetary system forming around HL Tau—a celestial ultrasound of a distant solar system. (Mary Beth Griggs)
Fallstreak Hole
A local Australian radio station tweeted this gorgeous cloud formation Monday, asking listeners, “Did you see the weird rainbow thing in the sky over Wonthaggi?” Discovery reports that the weird rainbow thing is in fact something called a “fallstreak hole”. Here’s how the NOAA describes the weather event: >These ‘supercooled’ water droplets need a ‘reason’ to freeze, which usually comes in the form of ice crystals. Planes passing through the cloud layer can bring these ice crystals. Once the ice crystals are introduced, the water droplets quickly freeze, grow and start to fall. A hole is left behind, which will start to expand outward as neighboring droplets start to freeze. We think “fallstreak” is a pretty great name for the gorgeous phenomenon.
Console Of Mystery
To celebrate the International Day of Radiology, General Electric released a collection of scans of everyday objects. Can you figure out which game console this is from its CT? What about the 18 other everyday objects in the gallery?
Seasonally-Perfect Nanoscale
Here’s what Brookhaven National Laboratory has to say about this fall-appropriate image on their Flickr page: >What appear to be lovely autumn leaves are actually the dendritic sprawl of lithium growing inside a battery. Brookhaven scientists use a technique called transmission electron microscopy to study the emergence of the atomic structures that cause batteries to age so poorly. Mapping what goes wrong on this fundamental scale helps us design new and improved nanotechnology for everything from smartphones to electric vehicles.
Hello, ISAAC
NASA installed this multi-million dollar composite materials research robot, known as ISAAC, in their Langley aerospace facility this week. The giant machine can build rocket and airplane parts out of epoxy and fibers.
Talented Testes
This microscopic image depicts sperm production in testicles. We know, we know. Gross. But get this: the massive, difficult project to map every protein in the human body — a far more complex task than the Human Genome Project known as the Human Proteome Project — has declared testicles the most protein-productive sites in the entire body. For comparison: So far, scientists have found 318 proteins in the brain, but 999 in the testicles.
Simulation Of Two Merging Black Holes In Front Of Milky Way