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

The Olympus BioScapes Competition

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

Soapy Wind

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.

Napa Valley Earthquake

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.

Nano Glow

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.

WikiGalaxy

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.

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.

Mushroom Mania

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.”

Niger, Feb. 13, 2013 – Arlit Uranium Mine

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.

Ultra-Detailed Nerves

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.

Comet Dust

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.

Galactic Gas Jet

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