Science

Howling Heat Wolves, Sex Weevils, And Other Amazing Images Of The Week

Plus, a closeup on cometary dust

By Rafi Letzter

December 20, 2014

These weevils took fourth place the Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition this year. Check out the other winners here.Csaba Pintér via Olympus

Created to analyze a new model for wind farming, these visualizations of fluid motion around a verticle axis turbine shed light on how air moves through a complex system.Daniel Araya and John Dabiri/CalTech

An August 24 earthquake in Napa Valley, California, shifted the Earth so much you can see it. Look halfway up the slope in this vineyard. See that bend in the once-orderly rows? It follows a fault. In fact, the slip was so massive you can see it from space.Ben Brooks/United States Geological Survey

This image from the National Institute of Standards and Technology shows ultraviolet light-emitting nanowires. The gallium nitride wires, grown on a silicon substrate, are considered a step toward nanoscale laser technology. Color has been added to the image.Flickr CC/Lorelle Mansfield/NIST

Nebula? Supernova? Actually, this image shows an explorable visual map of 100,000 Wikipedia articles called WikiGalaxy. Created by Owen Cornec, the gorgeous UI allows users to explore the online encyclopedia in a whole new way.WikiGalaxy

How cool is this? As part of a project to keep track of Yellowstone wolves' health, scientists have been studying them with thermal cameras. This image by Paul Cross shows a pair howling.Flickr CC/Paul Cross, USGS

Amateur fungi collector Rodham Tulloss, of New Jersey, has assembled perhaps the largest set of mushrooms and their cousins in the world. From Scientific American: >His climate-controlled Herbarium Rooseveltensis Amanitarum may contain more distinct species than any university or museum. “I've never counted,” he says. “I can tell you I have well over 6,000 collections of Amanita alone.”Ethan Hill

The commercial satellite company DigitalGlobe is showing off its favorite images of the year in a special competition. You can check out the full set here.DigitalGlobe

Neurons in skin present a unique challenge to microscopy, but, thanks to a new technique, scientists are getting clearer images than ever before--as in the image above.L.Castaldi/EMBL

For the first time, researchers have found comet dust on Earth. The above specimen, collected in Antarctica, opens up new avenues for research into the stellar bodies.Takaaki Noguchi

This image shows a jet of gas forced out of a distant galaxy by the pressure of stars forming in its core.University of Hertfordshire

Latest

Sea snail venom could lead to better insulin for diabetics

You might not recognize your office when it reopens again

Eighteen ways to improve your video calls

Nine traits that’ll keep you calm in a life-threatening situation

A beginner’s guide to freshwater fishing

HP’s new high-res VR headset aims for deeper immersion with less nausea

We can soon thank butterfly tongues for better cancer treatments and vaccines

The 160-year-old reason you’re obsessed with your lawn

NASA and SpaceX pulled off their first rocket launch. Watch every second of it here.