Toyota (TMG - Europe) To Attempt New Speed Record For Electric-Powered Vehicle

No official photos of the Toyota EV racer yet, but the car is expected to be similar to this e-Wolf ALPHA·1 SRF. The "e-Wolf" features two high-capacity electric-powered engines that catapult the ALPHA 1 SRF to 100 km/h (62.137 mph) in less than 4 seconds. This vehicle was conceived for application on a full racing distance. Image Credit: ewolf-car.com

Toyota (TMG - Europe) To Attempt New Speed Record For Electric-Powered Vehicle

Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) will attempt to set a new electric vehicle (EV) lap record at the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife. The current record is held by e·WOLF, a Germany based pioneer in the area of street-legal electric vehicles.

TMG has developed a high-performance electric powertrain and this will form the basis of the record attempt, which is provisionally scheduled for the end of August.

The TMG 100% electric car, which is based on a two-seater sportscar chassis fitted with TMG’s exclusive EV technology, has a top speed of 260km/h and can travel from 0 to 100km/h in 3.9 seconds.

This car is ideal for a single-make EV championship and TMG aims to prove that green-thinking motorsport can generate emotion among fans by using innovative technology to deliver high performance.

Its challenge is to break the existing EV lap record of 9min 1.338secs set earlier this year. Already the TMG electric powertain has bettered this time during unofficial testing and it is expected to make a significant improvement during the official timed laps.

Rob Leupen, TMG’s Director of Business Operations, said: “We are extremely confident we can break the record by some distance, which is an indication of how EV performance is continuously improving. TMG is a leader in high-performance powertrains and we want to show the world how far this technology has developed. Our mission is to advance this technology, not only in motorsport but in the automotive sector in general, to deliver products with more performance and better durability for our customers.”

Ludwig Zeller, TMG’s General Manager Electrics and Electronics, said: “TMG has developed a very robust and reliable electric powertrain, which has been proven in several products already. We have built up a tremendous amount of knowledge about such high-performance powertrains, particularly battery management systems and vehicle control units, during our development programmes. Our lap record attempt brings together this knowledge and it should clearly show the great potential of high-performance electric powertrains.”

Further details about the project, including photographs and a timetable for the record attempt, will follow in the coming days.
(ht: TMG)

... notes from The EDJE


[Article first published as New Speed Record Attempt For Electric-Powered Vehicle At Nurburgring on Technorati]

Twisting Buzz Lightyear ... "To Beyond, And Infinity"

Using the infrared Herschel Space Observatory, Astronomers have discovered this ring of gas at the center of our Milky Way that looks like an infinity symbol - image annotated. The image was taken using two of Herschel's instruments -- the photodetector array camera and spectrometer (70-micron-light is coded blue; 160-micron light is coded green) and the spectral and photometric imaging receiver (350-micron light is red). Image Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech

Twisting Buzz Lightyear ... "To Beyond, And Infinity"

In a strange twist of science, astronomers using the Herschel Space Observatory have discovered that a suspected ring at the center of our galaxy is warped for reasons they cannot explain. The above image reveals the ring with greater clarity than ever before. It can be seen as the yellow loop that appears to have two lobes, highlighted here with a white ribbon overlay. In fact, the ring, which is a collection of very dense and cold gas and dust, is twisted so that part of it rises above and below the plane of our Milky Way galaxy.

Astronomers aren't sure how rings like this form in galaxies but some theories suggest they arise out of gravitational disturbances with neighboring galaxies. New stars are thought to be forming in the dense gas making up the ring.

According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., astronomers were shocked by what they saw when they aimed the telescope at the galaxy's inner ring.

"[The] ring, which is in the plane of our galaxy, looked more like an infinity symbol with two lobes pointing to the side," JPL officials said in a statement. "In fact, they later determined the ring was torqued in the middle, so it only appears to have two lobes. To picture the structure, imagine holding a stiff, elliptical band and twisting the ends in opposite directions, so that one side comes up a bit."

Previous observations to date had only revealed portions of the ring. The Herschel Space Observatory, an infrared European Space Agency-led mission with important NASA contributions, sees long-wavelength infrared light, which can penetrate through the murky region at the center of our galaxy, allowing Herschel to get a more complete view.

"This is what is so exciting about launching a new space telescope like Herschel," said Sergio Molinari of the Institute of Space Physics in Rome, lead author of a new paper on the ring in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters. "We have a new and exciting mystery on our hands, right at the center of our own galaxy."

The ring stretches across more than 300 light-years of space, and is about 15 Kelvin (that's minus 433 degrees Fahrenheit here on the Oblate Spheroid). The warmest material in this picture is blue, and the coldest is red.

The twist in the ring is not the only mystery to come out of the new Herschel observations. Astronomers say that the center of the torqued portion of the ring is not where the center of the galaxy is thought to be, but slightly offset. The center of our galaxy is considered to be around "Sagittarius A*," where a massive black hole lies. According to Alberto Noriega-Crespo of NASA's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, it's not clear why the center of the ring doesn't match up with the assumed center of our galaxy. "There's still so much about our galaxy to discover," he said.

Oh, and the reference to Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear? ... Whenever he launched himself to be in flight, he would always exclaim, "To infinity, and beyond!" Little did the writers and creators of Toy Story know that there was actually a destination as ... Infinity.

An abstract and full PDF of the Astrophysical Journal Letters study is online at http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.5486.
(ht: herschel.caltech.edu & space.com)

[Article first published as Twisting Buzz Lightyear ... "To Beyond, And Infinity" on Technorati]

Google's Blogger Down For Over 24 Hours!

Blogger Logo - Image Credit: Blogger.com

Google's Blogger Down For Over 24 Hours!

Blogger ... Google's web log hosting portal, has been down for a full 24 hours at the time of this posting.

This seems like a modern era record for this usually very reliable communications service and personal publishing arm of the giant search powerhouse, Google.

With all of the push Google has been putting in on Chrome, one has to ask - Is Blogger now becoming just an ugly stepchild to the array of focused services that Google has to offer? What - isn't Blogger sexy enough for Google to keep outages down to a minimum?

If this is the case, Google's shine is losing its luster.

This excerpted from Blogger's Status Link:

Push-Button Publishing

Blogger Status

Friday, May 13, 2011

We’ve started restoring the posts that were temporarily removed and expect Blogger to be back to normal soon.

Posted by at 06:07 PDT

To get Blogger back to normal, all posts since 7:37am PDT on Weds, 5/11 have been temporarily removed. We expect everything to be back to normal soon. Sorry for the delay.

Posted by at 04:25 PDT

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UPDATE May 13, 2011 - 9:50am PT:

Blogger back online after nearly 30 hours of non-service.

Thanks, Google ... but we will be keeping an eye on you.

First Image Of Mercury From NASA Spaceship In Orbit Around Planet

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

First Image Of Mercury From NASA Spaceship In Orbit Around Planet

Date acquired: March 29, 2011
Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET): 209877871
Image ID: 65056
Instrument: Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
Center Latitude: -53.3°
Center Longitude: 13.0° E
Resolution: 2.7 kilometers/pixel (1.7 miles/pixel)
Scale: Debussy has a diameter of 80 kilometers (50 miles)

Of Interest: Early this morning, at 5:20 am EDT, MESSENGER captured this historic image of Mercury. This image is the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the Solar System's innermost planet. Over the subsequent six hours, MESSENGER acquired an additional 363 images before downlinking some of the data to Earth. The MESSENGER team is currently looking over the newly returned data, which are still continuing to come down. Tomorrow, March 30, at 2 pm EDT, attend the NASA media telecon to view more images from MESSENGER's first look at Mercury from orbit.

The dominant rayed crater in the upper portion of the image is Debussy. The smaller crater Matabei with its unusual dark rays is visible to the west of Debussy. The bottom portion of this image is near Mercury's south pole and includes a region of Mercury's surface not previously seen by spacecraft. Compare this image to the planned image footprint to see the region of newly imaged terrain, south of Debussy. Over the next three days, MESSENGER will acquire 1185 additional images in support of MDIS commissioning-phase activities. The year-long primary science phase of the mission will begin on April 4, and the orbital observation plan calls for MDIS to acquire more than 75,000 images in support of MESSENGER's science goals.

On March 17, 2011 (March 18, 2011, UTC), MESSENGER became the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury. The mission is currently in its commissioning phase, during which spacecraft and instrument performance are verified through a series of specially designed checkout activities. In the course of the one-year primary mission, the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation will unravel the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. Visit the Why Mercury? section of this website to learn more about the science questions that the MESSENGER mission has set out to answer.

UPDATES To Follow ...

Anti-Laser - The "Coherent Perfect Absorber" Is Born

In the anti-laser, incoming light waves are trapped in a cavity where they bounce back and forth until they are eventually absorbed. Their energy is dissipated as heat. Image Credit: Yidong Chong/Yale University

Anti-Laser - The "Coherent Perfect Absorber" Is Born

Everyone is familiar with laser light emitting devices such as pointers used in presentations and lectures, lightshows performed at events, openings, and concerts, even with the red-light that hits a barcode on the front of one's morning newspaper and pastry purchase at the corner 7-11 ... but this was not the case 51 years ago.

Now there is a new tool that has been developed through the the use of focused wavelength of light but unlike with the laser, where the focused wavelength is passed through a material that amplifies the light, the anti-laser utilities the opposite concept of passing a focused wavelength of light through material that absorbs the light. The process has been given the name "Coherent Perfect Absorber" giving a new, future meaning to the an-acronym "CPA".

In an anti-laser, or coherent perfect absorber, the outgoing laser beams are replaced by incoming ones, and light flows into a light-absorbing material instead of out of a light-amplifying one. Image Credit: Science/AAAS

When the laser was first conceptualized and developed into a working device, no one knew that it would eventually lead to replacing records and needles when one listens to music or film projectors when one watches a home movie transferred from a computer to a laser/DVD disc. The same could be said at the dawn of the anti-laser CPA process, No one knows what this new tool will bring to the tool-box, and what new applications can be developed, to solve the many problems we encounter that make our lives easier and more efficient.

Coherent light is incident on an absorbing material in a resonator formed by two parallel reflective surfaces or mirrors. The interplay of absorption and interference leads to perfect absorption of the incoming radiation and its conversion into other forms of energy1. The schematic of a laser would be entirely analogous, with only the arrows for light and energy reversed: energy pumped in would result in coherent light out. Image Credit: Nature Volume: 467, Pages: 37–39 Date published: (02 September 2010)


Dr. Wenjie Wan, a Phd from Princeton University, is a post-doctoral associate in applied physics at Yale. In photo, Wan works with the optical set up for an anti-laser experiment in the applied physics lab at Yale which involves prisms, mirrors and silicon. An anti-laser (or, in technical terms, "coherent perfect absorber") works in the reverse of a conventional laser. Instead of emitting a beam of light, it absorbs it. Two laser beams with the exact same frequencies are emitted into a silicon wafer. The silicon aligns the light waves so that they become interlocked and oscillate until they are absorbed and transformed into heat. The concept is in it's infancy and may be adapted to new computer technology down the road. Image Credit: STEPHEN DUNN, Hartford Courant (2011)

This excerpted and edited from the Hartford Courant -

The Anti-Laser Is Here
Yale researchers butild device that absorbs light
By William Weir - Hartford Courant - Feb. 17, 2011

A. Douglas Stone, a physicist, and his team describe the anti-laser in Friday's issue of Science.
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The possibility of an anti-laser had been suggested by other scientists, but only in passing, Stone said. And other physicists have stumbled upon the basic premise while working on other projects, he said, but they did not follow through.

"Nobody took it serious, until us," Stone said. "It was literally a footnote."
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Any dark material can absorb light — a car's black interior on a summer day, for instance — but to absorb near 100 percent of the light of a laser beam requires a bit more precision. The difference in the anti-laser is that instead of using an amplifying material, it uses one that absorbs it — or a "loss medium." After his research team did the math, Stone said, they decided that silicon was the best choice.

The anti-laser is set up to split a single laser beam into two and direct the two beams to head toward each other, meeting at the paper-thin silicon wafer. The light's waves are precisely tuned to interlock with each other and become trapped. They then dissipate into heat.

Perhaps the most novel part of the device is that it allows the operator to tune the light's wavelengths and determine how much of the laser light is absorbed. That allows the device to work as an on-off switch for light.

Stone first proposed the idea last year, in a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters. But it's one thing to write about it and do the math, and it's another to actually create it. That's where Stone's collaborators came in, a team of applied physicists headed by Hui Cao and Wenjie Wan. The divide between theoretical physics and applied physics is a stark one. As of Wednesday, Stone hadn't yet seen the finished device, built in another building on campus
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Wan said it took about a year to build the device. Pointing at the mirrors, prism, beam splitter and the silicon wafer that make up the device's basic components, he said the design is fairly simple. But achieving the necessary level of precision was a challenge. Even now, they're fine-tuning it.
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Now that the anti-laser has been built, what exactly do you do with it? Its best potential use, so far, appears to be in optical switches, used in the next generation of computers, which operate on light as well as electrons. Cao also has suggested that it could be useful in radiology, capturing images of human tissue normally too deep to see.

But as with much of science, the practical applications will be for others to figure out.
Reference Here>>

The Circular Nature Of Homo Sapiens

The Circular Nature Of Homo Sapiens

Humans can't walk in a straight line. If there's no fixed point of reference, our species just walk in circles and inevitably … get lost. Nobody knows why, but researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics have confirmed this tendency in several experiments.

If one walks, drives or sails wearing a blindfolded, in the middle of a fog occurrence, or at night without stars in sight, a human will not be able to keep moving in a direction that would be a straight line. No matter how hard one tries, humans will end up going in a circular direction because, for some mysterious reason, humans always have the tendency to lean (and thereby move) toward one side more than the other.

Some people speculate that this is because one side of the brain is dominating the other one. While other people speculate that the reason may be purely mechanical reasoning (with their reasoning side of the brain) that one of our legs is always sightly shorter than the other. But, according to the results of the study, these are not the causes for this unique behavior. At least, there's not one single explanation and it may be a combination of many.

Whatever the reasons are, don't get placed into a dark forest blindfolded and without a compass – however … screw the GPS when navigating around this Oblate Spheroid.

Virgin Galactic - Commercial Space Flight Celebrates Two Milestones

The Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise spacecraft, carried by Mothership Eve, prepares to during the Spaceport America runway dedication ceremony near Truth or Consequences and Las Cruses, N.M. Image Credit: Mark Rakston/AFP/Getty Images

Virgin Galactic - Commercial Space Flight Celebrates Two Milestones

Richard Bransom's dream to bring space flight to paying customers just notched two milestones this month over the deserts of California and New Mexico.

Launched from Mojave, California where the Virgin Galactic SpaceShip2 (VSS Enterprise) and its launch platform "mothership", WhiteKnight2 (Eve) were created, the first test flight took place on October 11, 2010. Virgin Galactic's space tourism rocket airship achieved its first solo glide flight marking another step in the company's eventual plans to fly paying passengers.

The rocket airship was carried aloft by its mothership to an altitude of 45,000 feet and released on a sunny Sunday day over the Mojave Desert. After the separation, SpaceShipTwo, manned by two test pilots, flew freely for 11 minutes before landing at an airport runway followed by the WhiteKnight2 mothership. The entire test flight process lasted about 25 minutes.

The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, "VSS Enterprise", married up with the WhiteKnightTwo mothership "Eve", flies over its new hangar as it prepares to land during the Spaceport America runway dedication in the southern New Mexico desert on October 22, 2010. Image Credit: Mark Rakston/AFP/Getty Images

Eleven days later, on October 22, 2010 near Las Cruces and Truth Or Consequences , N.M., the New Mexico Spaceport Authority dedicated the nearly two-mile-long runway at Spaceport America. Spaceport America has been providing commercial launch services for rockets since 2006 and is scheduled to become fully operational with the inclusion of the Virgin Galactic operation next year.

Virgin Galactic's new terminal hangar at Spaceport America is seen during the Spaceport America runway dedication ceremony near Truth or Consequences, N.M. Image Credit: Mark Rakston/AFP/Getty Images

Officials from Virgin showed off its new terminal hangar, which is nearing completion. The building is designed to house up to two WhiteKnightTwo motherships, five SpaceShipTwo space flight airships , Virgin's astronaut preparation facilities, and SpaceShip2 mission control operations.

The event featured Billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson haming it up with New Mexico Govenor Bill Richardson, for whom the "Governor Bill Richardson Spaceway" is named.

"We are celebrating the world's first spaceway at the world's first purpose-built, commercial spaceport," Richardson said, according to a news release. "New Mexico is not only helping to launch the commercial spaceflight industry, but we are launching new jobs and opportunities for the people of southern New Mexico."

Branson said: "Our spaceship is flying beautifully and will soon be making powered flights, propelled by our new hybrid rocket motor, which is also making excellent progress in its own test program. The investment deal with our new partners Aabar has successfully closed, securing funding for the remainder of the development program and we are seeing unprecedented numbers of people coming forward to secure their own reservations for this incredible experience."

Tickets to ride aboard SpaceShipTwo cost $200,000. It is understood that 370 customers have already plunked down deposits totaling about $50 million, according to Virgin Galactic.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said: "With the recent signing of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 by President Obama, it is clear that our nation's future space efforts will be working even more closely than with the growing commercial space transportation industry. Innovative approaches that foster this new commercial industry will bring more competition and opportunities that will lower the costs of spaceflight and payload services for America's aerospace programs, and introduce new human space transportation systems."

Virgin Galactic plans to fly commercial customers into space from the Spaceport and landed its SpaceShipTwo, the "VSS Enterprise," carried by WhiteKnightTwo mothership "Eve," during the ceremony held here at the New Mexico desert on this Oblate Spheroid.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS>>

Earth 2.0 ... Life Possible On Gliese 581g, 20.5 Light-Years Away

A planet, as depicted in this rendering, orbits the habitable zone of a star 20 light years from Earth, meaning it could have water on its surface. Image Credit: National Science Foundation and NASA

Earth 2.0 ... Life Possible On Gliese 581g, 20.5 Light-Years Away

Astronomers at the Keck telescope in Hawaii, during a study that has been underway for more than a decade, have identified a solar system that has a planet they suspect could support life as we know or understand it here on our Oblate Spheroid.

Let's call it Earth 2.0. It is a planet that is circling a Sun named Gliese, that is located a little over twenty light years away (the time it would take to get there if one could travel in a craft at the speed of light and carry enough food and etc. to sustains one's life to arrive and observe this suspect orb on site).

Carbon copy? The Gliese 581 solar system resembles our own but on a much smaller scale. Planet "G" is located in the "Goldilocks" zone of this sun's solar system [CTRL-CLICK photo to launch YouTube video]. Image Credit: Zina Deretsky/National Science Foundation

This excerpted and edited from All Voices news webportal -

Discovered Planet Zarmina (Gliese 581g) Is 'Habitable' For Human Life
By ryangeneral - Honolulu : HI : USA | Sep 30, 2010

The planet lies near the middle of the Goldilocks zone, or habitable zone of its parent star, and the presence of liquid water is considered a strong possibility. The discovery of Gliese 581 g was announced in September 2010, and is believed to be the first Goldilocks planet ever found, the most Earth-like planet, and the best exoplanet candidate with the potential for harboring life found to date.

The planet was detected using radial velocity measurements combining the data from the HIRES instrument of the Keck 1 telescope and the HARPS instrument of ESO's 3.6m telescope at La Silla Observatory. The planet is believed to have a mass of three to four times that of the Earth and an orbital period of just under 37 days.

Steven Vogt, the co-discoverer, unofficially named the planet "Zarmina", after his wife.
Reference Here>>

The Goldilocks zone refers to a story that parents read to their children that goes by the formal title "The Story Of The Three Bears". This fable, often referred to as "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is a children's story first recorded in narrative form by English author and poet Robert Southey and first published in a volume of his writings in 1837. The same year, writer George Nicol published a version in rhyme based upon Southey's prose tale, with Southey approving the attempt to bring the story more exposure. Both versions tell of three bears and an old woman who trespasses upon their property.
(ht: wikipedia)

In the fable, Goldilocks is hungry and stumbles upon a home of Bears where three bowls of soup or porridge are on the table. Goldilocks helps herself to eating some of the porridge and discovers that one bowl of the food mixture is too hot, one is too cold, and one ... the one she presumably eats all up is ... Just Right!

This planet discovery is in a solar system zone that is just right given our knowledge of the origins of life as we know it here on Earth.

We wonder if the shape of this Gliese 581g orb is the same Oblate Spheroid shape of our own Earth. Welcome Zarmina ... welcome Earth 2.0.

Of Neanderthals & Homosapiens - The Nanderthal In Most All Of Us

The Neanderthal project, which took four years and involved 57 scientists, is the latest and most astonishing example of the recovery of scientifically useful information from ancient DNA. Image Credit: Sydney Morning Herald

Of Neanderthals & Homosapiens - The Nanderthal In Most All Of Us

When someone makes a simple mistake, some people call out the person making the mistake by saying, "You Neanderthal!" Growing up this was a typical degrading accusation heard along the way but as it turns out ... this statement might have held more truth than we even knew.

It has been discovered through studies with DNA genomes that interbreading between Neanderthals and Homosapiens did indeed take place and as a result, 1 to 4 percent of the genes carried by non-African people are traceable to the much-caricatured, belittled, and large-browed cavemen.

So now when one makes a mistake and gets accused of being a Neanderthal, if the person has Caucasian DNA, one has to ask ... are they the one, two, three, or four percent type of Neanderthal?

This excerpted and edited from All Headline News -

Study: Neanderthals Interbred With Homosapiens
Windsor Genova - AHN News News Writer - May 6, 2010 5:49 p.m. EST

The findings was the result of the comparison of the genomes of modern human and the burly and big-brained Neanderthal conducted by geneticist Svante Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Science.
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Neanderthal originated from Europe, Russia and the Middle East. They existed 400,000 to 30,000 years ago. Modern humans are said to have originated from Africa and the two species encountered each other in the Middle East and limited interbreeding occurred.

Pääbo constructed the Neanderthal genome using fossil DNA from three Neanderthal women who lived in Croatia between 38,000 and 45,000 years ago.
Reference Here>>

All this study really proves is that it's love ... that makes the Oblate Spheroid go around, you big lugg!

Dew Drops Are Fallin' On My Head ...

Stunning: Droplets of water bead on the head of this blue dragonfly as it slumbers on a leaf. Image Credit: Miroslaw Swietek

Dew Drops Are Fallin' On My Head ...

When someone mentions bugs ... flies, moths, dragonflies and the like, one congers up mental images of prickly, dirty, and somewhat mono-colored nuisances that have to be sprayed or flicked away in order for one not to be bothered while around them and in their element. They are not welcome in the house, or tent, and they definitely never exude any beauty!

The stunning micro-photography of Miroslaw Swietek from around the Polish countryside on this Oblate Spheroid might just be changing minds when they are lingered over and studied on every detail. Just beautiful.

This excerpted and edited from The Daily Mail -

Would dew believe it: The stunning pictures of sleeping insects covered in water droplets
By Daily Mail Reporter - Last updated at 11:29 AM on 31st March 2010

Glistening in the early morning, these insects look like creatures from another planet as dew gathers on their sleeping bodies.

Captured in extreme close-up, one moth appears to be totally encrusted in diamonds as it rests on a twig.

Dragonflies, flies and beetles also take on an unearthly quality as the water droplets form on them.

These remarkable photographs were taken by physiotherapist Miroslaw Swietek at around 3am in the forest next to his home.

Using a torch, the 37-year-old amateur photographer hunts out the motionless bugs in the darkness before setting up his camera and flash just millimetres from them.

Close up: Amateur photographer Miroslaw Swietek captured this common fly slumbering on top of a plant as the water condenses on its body

Bejewelled: This month looks like it has been encrusted in diamonds as it rests on a twig

Mr Swietek said: 'I took up photography as a relaxing hobby two and a half years ago and I particularly like taking pictures of insects and lizards.

'I photograph them in their natural environment in the forest next to my village.

'They all are covered in dew because I go to the forest in the morning at around 3am.

'At 3am to 4am insects are sleepy and taking photos of them is easy, but it is very difficult to find them.

Close up: The insects appear to be completely drenched in water as they rest while the sun is down

Shower time: Mr Swietek gets up at 3am to capture the insects while they are less active in a forest near his home

'You must be very fast taking the photos because the dew quickly disappears.

'It is very satisfying getting a good shot of an insect which I have had to hunt out.

'I have books which help my identify insects but because they are all covered in dew I find it almost impossible to know which types they are.'

Although insects do not 'sleep' in the same sense as humans, they enter a state of torpor where they are virtually immobile and much less sensitive to external stimuli.

Mr Swietek lives with his wife and teenage son in Jaroszow, a village in Poland around 30 miles from the city of Wroclaw.

Clinging on: The amateur photographer searches for the insects using a torch and then sets up his camera and flash right next to them

Hobby: Another dragonfly enjoys an early morning wash. Mr Swietek only took up photography two and a half years ago

Reference Here>>

Blobfish ... what's not to love?

"Whadda you lookin' at?" - The rare and oddly human-looking Blobfish (Psychrolutes Marcidus) [CTRL-CLICK image to see and hear our friend speak]. Image Credit: NOAA

Blobfish ... what's not to love?

With a face only a mother could love, the Blobfish was only recently discovered this last decade when fishing trawlers using deep sea drag nets brought up a few specimen along with their intended catch.

Blobfish are found at about 2,400 feet deep where the pressure is several dozens of times higher than at sea level, which would likely make gas bladders inefficient. To remain buoyant, the flesh of the Blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass making the body density slightly less than that of salt water; this allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending any energy on swimming. It just floats ... to eat.

While not terribly aggressive, this fish has caught the attention and imagination of a whole class of humans recently, primarily due to the one really good photo found on the internet that had been issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a handout photo / February 15, 2010 (above). A fish with a somewhat human-looking face ... the Blobfish.

It spawned this prose from the LA Times.

This excerpted and edited from the LA Times -

Fear the blobfish
With its humanlike face, the blobfish is a creature of nightmares, and who knows what terrors it could bring upon us
By John Kass - February 17, 2010

As you can see from the accompanying photograph, the cunning blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is the most terrifying fish in the world.

And if you're not afraid of it yet, you should be, because there's always something lurking out there that can get you.

Its hideously deformed body is quite boneless, a gelatinous orb hovering in the deep, covered in slime and mucus. But there's something even worse.

Its face.
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A blobfish looks like some fat, drunken judge and may be highly intelligent. And therefore quite dangerous.

It frowns. It leers. Sometimes, it even drools.
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American journalism has a formula for stories designed to whip up panic about highly adaptive species. For "balance," you insert a quote or two from some learned biologist who tells readers not to worry.

Some marine biologist might reassure readers that the blobfish lives far away, in the deep waters off the coast of Tasmania — some 9,600 miles away — and therefore could never find its way into the Chicago River or the ship canal.

Yeah, right.
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It's not impossible (perhaps even likely) that schools of bloodthirsty blobfish may be blobbing their way up the Mississippi River, their big noses leaving wakes behind them, and roiling trails of foam. And then they'll be oozing from your kitchen tap.
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The blobfish is boneless. It's a blob.

So, theoretically, it might squeeze through all the protective filters and screens, and then, with a grunt, pop right out of your stylish Swedish designer faucet, its ugly face first.

Or perhaps out of your toilet bowl when you're at your most vulnerable, sleepy in the middle of the night.

Or what about your pulsating-massage shower head? Just imagine the beast squeezing from the shower head, hurtling at your face, or worse, into your open mouth, your muffled screams unheard by your loved ones.

So don't give me the pious ramblings of scientific bureaucrats telling us not to panic over the dreaded beast.
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Sadly, information regarding the terror of the blobfish is scarce, perhaps by design.
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"As the blobfish is comprised of a gelatinous substance, they actually have no muscles at all, and they just float in the same spot most of the time, waiting for their next meal."
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It's said the blobfish eats mostly mollusks, but it's only a matter of time until it develops a hunger for human snacks, first Cheez-Its and Slim Jims, then maybe veal chops, before lunging up the food chain.
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Yet with an imminent blobfish invasion, we'll have to come up with new recipes. Try broiled blobfish on a buttered baking sheet, sprinkled with Japanese-style breadcrumbs, the crunchiness contrasting pleasantly with all that goo underneath.

Or how about sauteed blobfish, with lemon and capers?
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So be afraid.

Be very much afraid.
Reference Here>>

Deep-sea snail shell structure yields hints for new protective body Armour

Crysomallon squamiferum, commonly known as the scaly-foot gastropod, was discovered in 1999 in the Kairei “black smoker” field on the Central Indian Ridge, at a depth of 2420 metres. The shell is uniquely structured to crack when hit, but in a way that absorbs energy. Image Credit: Fisheries Meiwa

Deep-sea snail shell structure yields hints for new protective body Armour

A discovery deep in the Indian Ocean, along a volcanic rift known as a "black-smoker" is just now coming to light in its significance as a natural protective structure against pinching and piercing blows. The attention is being brought by a couple scientists doing research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on structures that could help in the development of the next generation of protective human body Armour.

What has the focus of this attention on a deep-sea snail (Crysomallon squamiferum, commonly known as the scaly-foot gastropod) is its unique shell which is made up of the snail's ability to incorporate iron sulfide particles into its shell, and in a skirt along the edges for protection against the blows it receives from predator deep-sea Crabs.

The Crysomallon squamiferum, commonly known as the scaly-foot gastropod is small. It is only about two to three centimeters in length. Image Credit: Department of Microbiology - NC State University

This excerpted and edited from the New Scientists -

Deep-sea snail shell could inspire next-gen armour
New Scientists - 20:00 18 January 2010 by Shanta Barley

Christine Ortiz at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her colleagues studied the snail's three-layered shell to find out how it defends itself from crab attacks.

To assess the shell's strength and stiffness, they penetrated it with diamond-tipped probe – applying the same amount of force that an attacking crab's claws might use. They then used the data to model the shell's layers and launched a virtual crab attack on it.
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It turns out that the snail employs some unique tricks to protect itself. For example, the shell's outermost layer consists of strong particles of iron sulphide created in the hydrothermal vents, each around 20 nanometres across, embedded in a soft organic matrix secreted by the snail. This structure is designed to crack when hit, but in a way that absorbs energy.

Cracks spread only by fanning out around the iron sulphide particles. This "microcracking" not only absorbs energy, it also ensures that larger cracks do not form. What's more, the particles of iron sulphide may blunt and deform intruding claws, the study suggests.

A thick, spongy middle layer acts as padding to dissipate further the energy of the blow. This makes it less likely that the mollusc's brittle inner shell, which is made of calcium carbonate, will crack.

The middle layer may be an important adaptation to life at a deep-sea hydrothermal vent, suggests Cortiz: the acidic water near black smokers dissolves calcium carbonate and so can quickly enlarge fractures.

The three-layer design could be used to improve body armour "without the addition of excessive weight", says Ortiz.
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The idea of coating armour in iron-based nanoparticles that dissipate the energy of a blow by generating microcracks is "largely unexplored in synthetic systems" and particularly promising, says Cortiz.

Helmets, motorbikes and Arctic pipelines that collide with icebergs, leading to costly oil spills, could also benefit, says Cortiz, who is also exploring the armour systems deployed by the marine molluscs known as chitons, sea urchins, beetles and a fish known as the Senegal bichir.
Reference Here>>

So, in the not so distant future ... here on this Oblate Spheroid, one will be riding their Harley-Davidson at a speed something other than a snail's pace, not clad in "leathers" but sporting the colors of rust cast off from embedded iron-based nanoparticles.

Dinosaur find in New Mexico tells of greater migration, evolution

Looking over some recently found bones. Randy Irmis, the curator of paleontology at the University of Utah Natural History Museum, has identified a new species, Tawa hallae. The find seems to shed light on early dinosaur migrations. Image Credit: FRANCISCO KJOLSETH I The Salt Lake Tribune

Dinosaur find in New Mexico tells of greater migration, evolution

A study of bones and skeletons recovered in the Colorado Plateau's Chinle formation, Northern New Mexico, that was published Friday, December 18, 2009, in Science, finds that South America may not have been the birthplace of Dinosaurs after all.

A new species of predatory dinosaur, named "Tawa hallae" to honor the region's rich Native American heritage, could provide an evolutionary link between primitive dinosaurs found in South America, where scientists believe dinosaurs first appeared, and more evolved meat-eaters found in North America here, on this Oblate Spheroid.

An artist's rendering of Tawa hallae, from bone fragments - full body , a newly identified primitive meat-eating dinosaur discovered in New Mexico. Image Credit: Jorge Gonzalez, Utah Museum of Natural History

The study contends the 213-million-year-old specimen provides evidence that early dinosaurs roamed far across the Earth's megacontinent Pangea, before North and South America separated.

Tawa halle was a 6-foot, long-snouted theropod ... a bipedal animal with long claws and serrated teeth that sustained itself on fish, amphibians and reptiles whose fossils were recovered in the same bone bed.

An artist's rendering of Tawa hallae's head from skull fragments, a newly identified primitive meat-eating dinosaur discovered in New Mexico. Image Credit: Jorge Gonzalez, Utah Museum of Natural History

This excerpted and edited from The Salt Lake Tribune -

New Mexico find sheds light on early dinosaur dispersal
Tawa hallae » Triassic-era meat-eater has primitive South American kin
By Brian Maffly, The Salt Lake Tribune - Updated: 12/11/2009 07:26:24 AM MST

A team of young paleontologists has identified a new species of predatory dinosaur that sheds new light on early dinosaur evolution and movements before the continents separated 200 million years ago.
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Randall Irmis, the Utah Museum of Natural History's curator of paleontology, helped excavate the bones in northern New Mexico while a graduate student at Berkeleyand published the study with lead author Sterling Nesbitt, of the University of Texas at Austin.
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Irmis and Nesbitt's team includes co-authors Nathan Smith of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; Alan Turner of Stony Brook University in New York; and Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. Also named is Alex Downs, the curator of the paleontology museum at Ghost Ranch, a 21,000-acre spread near Abiquiu made famous by painter Georgia O'Keeffe. But Ghost Ranch is also famous as the world's richest trove of fossil remains of coelophysis, another small theropod.

Paleontologists Randall Irmis, left, and Sterling Nesbitt work to extract dinosaur bones at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. Image Credit: Alan Turner

Downs said a visiting group in 2004 came across a hip and thigh that did not belong to a coelophysis. He notified Irmis and his colleagues, all graduate students then under 30, known to have an interest in early dinosaur evolution. The group converged on New Mexico the following year and struck pay dirt in the Chinle's colorful clay deposit at Ghost Ranch.

This formation is common across southern Utah, presenting as talus slopes beneath Windgate sandstone cliffs. At the time the formation was deposited, the Colorado Plateau was near the equator and its climate was warm and wet.

The scientists recovered five to seven sub-adult specimens that together built a complete skeleton of a previously unknown creature. Scientists believe these individuals were swept up in a flood and quickly interred together with other Triassic animals and plants.
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"The preservation of tawa is exquisite. Tawa was in soft rock and very easy to prepare," Nesbitt said. The "nearly pristine" detail on the articulated bones was so fine, the team could make out muscle scars, construct a complete skull and see how ligament attached to bone and how thighs engaged with hips.

As a result, Tawa is now among the most completely known Triassic theropods and a real gift to science, Irmis said. With such a clear view of this animal's anatomy, the team could perform reliable morphological comparisons with other theropods from around the world. This is where things got interesting.

The specimens were found in the same deposits as two other early predators, coelophysis and chindesaurus. But these three are not each others' closest relatives. Tawa's next-of-kin appears to be a South American proto-theropod called herrerasaurus.
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The team was most intrigued with what this suggests about the trans-Pangea movements of dinosaurs.

"The discovery of multiple dinosaur species in one place that emigrated from elsewhere got us wondering whether other Late Triassic reptiles show similar patterns," said Irmis. "It turns out a variety of other reptile groups made multiple trips from the northern and southern continents [then parts of Pangea] and back again during the Late Triassic, including other dinosaurs."
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Why were theropods dispersing into North America, but not their plant-eating cousins? Perhaps differences in plant life made this terrain uninhabitable for early vegetarian dinosaurs, Irmis speculates.

"Because so many other reptile groups were crisscrossing Pangea just fine, it suggests there were no big physical barriers like mountain ranges," he said. "Instead, the absence in North America of plant eating dinosaurs during the Triassic suggests that the barriers related to climate."
Reference Here>>