We’ve got a delightfully plant-and-animal-heavy Images roundup for you this week, like newly rediscovered monkeys, unbelievably beautiful polar invertebrates (above), gorgeous orchids, and more. Of course, there are also some pretty space pics, because we love them, and you love them, and everyone else loves them, and a whole lot more.
Click to launch this week’s Images of the Week gallery.
Grizzled Langur
By late last year, researchers had thought the grizzled langur, a native of Borneo, extinct, due to rapidly diminishing forest areas. But a recently published journal article reveals that they’ve been found again, in a national forest preserve in the eastern part of the island. They’re still exceedingly rare, but this is still great news. Read more at Wired.
Before and After
ProPublica.org put together this chart, showing the before-and-after effects of the anti-SOPA/PIPA blackout this past week. It’s pretty incredible to see how much the internet can affect the voting process, if the battle is right. Read more here.
Polar Color
Photographer Alexander Semenov shoots rare creatures found in the White Sea, northwest of Russia. This underwater slug is just one of the many (all incredible) shots you can browse through at Semenov’s site.
Space-Eye
The Helix Nebula stares at you. It knows all. It wants you to read more here. It does not appreciate being referred to as “the Eye of Sauron” by mere human fleshbags.
Metal Mammoth
This one-ton metal mammoth was constructed out of recycled equipment, mostly the kind of stuff found around a farm. It’s life-sized and can be found in the Moses Lake Museum and Art Center in Washington. Read more over at the site of Jud Turner, the builder of this amazing structure.
SpiderCape
This cape is the largest garment to have ever been woven from spider silk. And once you hear how difficult it was–we’re talking one million golden orb spiders and five years of work–you won’t wonder why it’s the only one of its kind, despite its strength and incredible lightness. And no, it’s not dyed–that’s the natural hue of the filament. Read more here.
Pothole Gardens
Steve Wheen plants these tiny, idyllic garden scenes in actual potholes in East London. He doesn’t leave them around; a pothole garden isn’t much more safe than a regular pothole, after all. But he does document them on his blog.
Papercraft Organs
According to Boing Boing, Horst Kiechle made this papercraft torso–complete with anatomically correct papercraft intestines and other organs–for the Science Lab of the International School Nadi in the Fiji Islands.
The Eagle Flies
This new shot of one of the most well-photographed objects in space, the Eagle Nebula, reminds us just how incredible it always was. Read more here.
Orchid Olympics
This week also boasted the Orchid Olympics, one of the biggest gathering of orchids and orchid enthusiasts (some 300,000 of the latter) in history. And with orchids being likely the most diverse flower family in the world, there was certainly a lot of variation, including this spectacular Paphiopedilum Michael Koopowitz hybrid (orchids are often named for their finders or breeders). Read more (and see more) here.
The Sky Is Broken
This error message looked like it was floating in the sky in Odessa, Ukraine. Turns out it was just a foggy night obscuring a screen, which normally would be displaying an ad. [via English Russia]