Random Thought of the Day

Ancient penguins!!!

Some paleontologists in Peru recently discovered a 36 million year-old penguin fossil! This guy is a HUGE! About twice the size of an emperor penguin! Woah!

P.S. This artist's rendition is not the species that was just recently discovered, however, it's about the same size, so I thought I'd show it to you anyway.

Also, unlike modern-day penguins, these guys don't wear the typical penguin tuxedo. Instead, they have brown bellies and gray tops. I like the new wardrobe selection.

Check out the full article here at the NY Times! AND there's this cool video from NatGeo:

Uh oh... MORE NUDIS!!!

Ok, so these are LOCAL nudibranchs.

Check it; you can find them in the Sound!!!

First is the Giant nudi, Dendronotus iris, is the biggest nudi in the world reaching lengths of more than 30cm!!! Wait, they get cooler. When threatened, they can jump off the ground and swim away! These guys feed only on tube anemones!

Also, they come in many different colors. For example:

Next is a "mystery" animal found in someone's sewer... Surprise! It's a nudibranch! Bet you didn't guess that one!

This is Onchidoris bilamellata or the rough-mantled doris. They're kinda ugly, but they do this really nifty thing during breeding season. Literally thousands of these nudis will congregate and start swarming, slowly crawling in one direction. They all start to follow the slime trails (mucus) of the individual in front of them, forming lines of nudis several hundred long! So COOL!

MORE Nudis!!!

I have come to the conclusion that everyone likes nudibranchs. Besides the fact that they are so cute and pretty, they are also REALLY FREAKING COOL!!!

Almost ALL nudis (pronounced like nudies) are specialized to eat ONE type of animal! For example, there are some that eat only anemones. When they eat these anemones, they will absorb the stinging cells from the anemone and add them to their own "tentacles" (actually, those furry, tentacle-like things are called cerata). And these same nudis will also start secreting mucus that can protect them from the anemone's stingers!

But here's a nudi that specializes in eating OTHER NUDIS!!!

It's really beautiful and yet, very sad at the same time.

Hope you enjoy!

Whoa, I have just seen into my future...

This video was AWESOME!

Well, you might not enjoy learning about the history of ornithology as much as I do, but this short talk is still quite comical.

Actually, in the next 30 years, I will probably end up becoming this man...making jokes about phallic fungi, over-sized testes, and promiscuous female birds...
Yes, definitely me in 30 years.

Also, Mr. Birkhead talks about an example of how this "frivolous field" of ornithology actually has "real-world" significance! Just for you, Mom!



Linked from TED.com

Blending Science and Art!

Once again, here's a great blend of science and art. I am definitely in love with this form of art!!!

This dude, Nick Veasey is an x-ray photographer. Yeah, that's right, he's doing art with x-rays! His work gives us insight into the world within, allowing us to truly see that "beauty is more than skin deep."

Check it out!

Check out the rest of his amazing work here at his website: http://www.nickveasey.com/

WHAAAAAAT?????

Holy CRAP!!! I cannot believe that this is possible!!!! This man is amazing. I can't believe it. Completely blowing my mind right now.

Mathemagic. Yup. Math-magic. It sounds pretty cheesy, but OH MY GOODNESS, I am in awe.

Random Thought of the Day

Here's an absolutely mind-blowing TED lecture presented by an exploration expert. Bill Stone, deep cave explorer, was commissioned by NASA to design a mission to Europa in search of extra-terrestrial life. He used his extensive experience exploring the unknown depths of our own planet to design a robot capable of autonomously exploring, documenting, and analyzing the unknown depths of the Europan oceans. But then he goes on to propose a truly radical idea. Bill Stone wants to build a fueling station in space! And not only that, but he claims that he can do it in the next 7 years using less than one trillion dollars!!!

This man is crazy, but might actually revolutionize space travel in the next 20 years.