The Most Amazing Science Images of the Week, July 16-20, 2012
By Dan Nosowitz, Popular Science, 13 July 2012.
By Dan Nosowitz, Popular Science, 13 July 2012.
This week's roundup of the most amazing images we've seen this week zooms in, to see these stinkbug eggs up close - and then zooms out, to see an exoplanet, 33 light-years away. We go to the present, with the leg that will help a double-amputee compete in the Olympic Games, and to the future, with a camera controlled by the movements of the human eye. Check 'em out.
1. Olympic Leg
The Wellcome Trust has a new exhibit in London called "Superhuman," focusing on ways to enhance or correct the human body. This prosthetic leg is similar to the one used by Oscar Pistorius, who will race in London this summer.
2. Panoramic Antarctica
Google's had limited Street View in Antarctica for awhile, but this week they announced a new panoramic mode. It's pretty sweet. Check it out here. [Related Post]
3. Fires vs. Nukes
Data visualizer John Nelson put together this map showing the energy created by a fire, with nuclear plant energy capacity as the unit. Turns out wildfires release just about as much energy. Read more here.
4. Shuttle Pavilion
A great shot of the space shuttle Enterprise, at the press opening of the Shuttle Pavilion at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.
5. Steamy Exoplanet
NASA found a very small, very hot exoplanet, only 33 light-years away, this week. It's two-thirds the size of Earth, but pretty unlikely to support life - the surface temperature is probably around 1,000° F, since it's so close to its sun. Read more here.
6. The Petermann Glacier
The Petermann Glacier, off the coast of Greenland, just lost another huge chunk, creating an iceberg. NASA captured the "calving" as it happened. Read more here.
7. Stink Bug Eggs
Who knew stink bug eggs were so beautiful and weird? This shot won sixth place in the Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition. See more winners here.
8. Soyuz Launch
What a great shuttle launch pic! This one is of the Soyuz launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying Russian, Japanese, and U.S. astronauts up to the ISS. For more great photojournalism like this, check out American Photo.
9. Blink to Shoot
Mimi Zou, a student at the Royal College of Art, designed this beautiful camera concept that looks like nothing more than a short lens. But this concept is a biometrics-enabled camera - it's controlled by the movement of the human eye. It's a nice fancy concept, with augmented reality to show what's around and a head-up display embedded. Not sure it's possible technically, but very cool. See a video of the project here.
Top image: A crazy storm hit New York City this week, showering us all with rain and, oddly, hail. This great shot, taken from an airplane, shows it from far away. [Related Post]
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please adhere to proper blog etiquette when posting your comments. This blog owner will exercise his absolution discretion in allowing or rejecting any comments that are deemed seditious, defamatory, libelous, racist, vulgar, insulting, and other remarks that exhibit similar characteristics. If you insist on using anonymous comments, please write your name or other IDs at the end of your message.