Science

Frozen Facades, Frolicking Red Pandas, And Other Amazing Images Of The Week

It must be winter or something

By Lydia Ramsey

February 20, 2015

A medical building that caught on fire in West Philadelphia received an ice coating as firefighters worked to contain the flames. Around the building, their efforts also covered the sidewalks with inch-thick ice.@ZachLashway via Twitter

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created an LED-lit "robot garden" that can be controlled by a tablet. The idea is to give kids a more accessible way to learn how to code--and it makes for a great light show.YouTube

It might be bitterly cold for those of us on the eastern half of the U.S., but thankfully these red pandas playing in the snow can warm our hearts a bit. Watch the two from the Cincinnati Zoo frolic in their habitat as you try to tell yourself that winter can be pretty fun.The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden via YouTube

This year, limpet's teeth became the strongest biological substance, bumping spider's silk down to second place. Here's a view of the super small teeth attached to the sea snail's tongue.University of Portsmouth

To get a better understanding of supermassive black holes, NASA and ESA astronomers are measuring the super fast winds they produce. This illustration details what those winds might look like.NASA/JPL-Caltech/Keele Univ

Filmmaker Sandro Bocci captured what some of the slowest moving underwater creatures look like when sped up. The result? A colorful display of all the minuscule movements the coral and sponges make.Sandro Bocci/...Meanwhile…

NASA's Terra satellite got this picture of the eastern part of the U.S.--and things are looking pretty snow-covered all the way down to Tennessee and North Carolina. (Not pictured: Most of New England, which is buried under about 5 feet of snow.)NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team

Mold, as gross as it seems, is actually cool to see when viewed at close range. This timelapse video, which resurfaced again this week is a breathtaking (and a little shudder-inducing) look at how mold grows.YouTube

PhotoShop turned 25 this week, so to celebrate, Adobe released a video showcasing all the ways the software can work. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the cool edits(and maybe even a little jealous of those who have skills beyond basic cropping abilities).YouTube

The scientists who helped create the visual effects for Interstellar released a paper detailing how they rendered the black hole Gargantua. This is one of the images of the black hole's accretion disk(the material being drawn in by gravity to the center of the mass). To revel in the astrophysics, check out the full paper.IOP Science

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