What do You Have to do to Get a Drink Around Here?

Image Credit Flickr User Wildxplorer

From the largest mammal to the tiniest insect we all have to drink. If we don’t we die. Over at the Ark in Space they are focusing on the little guys, the ones which you can hardly imagine need much water. Indeed, sometimes they can be in danger of being carried away in their enthusiasm to sate their thirst. Thanks to some wonderfully macrophotography we get to see this most vital of functions being carried out – with some gusto – by a host of insects. Drink up!

Alien Nations: Up Close and Impersonal with Insects and Spiders

Over at the Ark in Space there are a number of insects and spiders awaiting your company.  Don't think you will be able to squish these representatives of seemingly alien nations on Earth, however. Thanks to macrophotography they look as big as you or I - and a few of them look like they would quite fancy us for their tea too!

Above is the eight eyes of a Hentzia palmarum Jumping Spider - or as many as can be seen without a 360 degree pan.  Head over to the Ark in Space for the rest of the collection.

Image Credit Flickr User Thomas Shahan

The Eiffel Tower: Different Perspectives

It is one of the most well-known buildings in the world. It is, possibly for that reason, easy to take it for granted when seen from afar. After all, by 2010 over 250 million people had visited it. Yet up close it reveals another side to its character.  When seen from different perspectives, the Eiffel Tower regains the power to astonish.

Image Credit Flickr User David.NikonVsCanon

Slime Mold - Alien Landscapes On Earth

Just the thought of mold is something that makes many people involuntarily shudder. Yet there is more to it than meets the eye – particularly if you are lucky enough to see Kim Fleming’s remarkable macrophotography.  Up close we are witness to an enigmatic and beautiful alien world on our own doorstep.

This strange and wonderful thing is Hemitrichia calyculata.  It typically has stalked sporocarps.  These are fruiting bodies which contain sporangia – the mold version of seeds.  They look like the weird plants that featured in numerous 1950s science fiction B-movies.  Or maybe even some strange alien egg pods, left to be discovered by innocent space travelers.  No need to worry, though – at most they reach two and a half millimeters in height.

Under the Electron Microscope

It may be hard to believe but the first electron microscope was developed by German physicist Hans Busch in 1926 with a prototype built by Ernst Ruska and the electrical engineer Max Knoll in 1931.  In 1933 Ruska built an electron microscope (or EM) that surpassed the resolution which could be achieved with a light microscope.  Yet perhaps even Ruska could not have envisioned future developments, which mean that today we can see things such as the zinc oxide particle (above) in more detail than ever before.

Image Credit Flickr User PNNL

The difference between an EM and the microscope of old is fairly straightforward even if the science which separates them is not.  An EM uses an electron beam to illuminate a specimen rather than light.  As such is can make out tiny details of a given object with a significantly greater resolving power than a light microscope. The detail is greater because the wavelength is shorter: visible light photons are about 100,000 times longer than those of electrons in terms of wavelength.  The picture above shows the aftermath of fayalite reacting with gaseous CO2 to form siderite, thereby capturing the CO2 in a solid, stable form  

Macro Timelapse

The English philosopher Jeremy Bentham said “Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet”. Not so Daniel Csobot at Natural Recall who researches the inner workings between the animal and vegetable world. This exquisite macro time-lapse shows those flowers at our feet at a speed which allows us to take in the wonders of nature at a speed we are not usually afforded. Lovely.

Dragonfly Delight - Amazing Macrophotography

The sight of a dragonfly is one of the more remarkable that nature has to offer. The Ark In Space, with the help of some astounding macrophotography, takes a look at the life cycle of the dragonfly as well as its remarkable and unusual physiology.

Image Credit MrClean1982

The Real Alien Ant Farm

NASA technology and macrophotography come together to produce a stunning set of images of the real alien ant farm.

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We might be a little in danger of coming over all Monty Python if we pose the question what has NASA ever done for us?  It is a good question, however and one which we will seek to answer in an occasional series of articles, beginning with this one.  The real alien ant farm!

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Generations of children have been fascinated by ant farms (not to mention adults who often use the kids wanted one as an excuse) but when it comes to dirt, you can’t really see a great deal of what is going on inside.  Enter NASA.  Back in 2003, the Space Agency wanted to see how ants would create their tunnels in zero gravity.  However, there was a problem, not so much for Houston but for the ants.

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The problem was gravity, specifically the almighty amount of it associated with getting a shuttle off terra firma and in to space.  If sand had been used then it would shift under the gravity and inevitably crush the life out of the ants.  A container full of squished ants would not be very useful for any sort of study in space – unless it was to be a taste test of some kind.

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Life and death can be observed through this clear gel.  So, how do you get the tiny harvester ants with their powerful jaws and tenacious nature up beyond the blue?  NASA rose to the problem and their solution was to create the gel that you can see here.  Because of its chemical composition it does not collapse during launch.    Wouldn’t that happen to the ants too?  The answer is no – ants are incredibly resilient and able to withstand the G force of lift off with no problem.  Hardly a surprise when you consider they can lift up to twenty times their body weight.

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Furthermore, scientists could put all the food and water necessary to sustain the ants on their trip inside the gel.  What’s more they were also able to put in anti-fungal agents and antibiotics to help ensure the ants would not get ill!  The other main advantage of the gel is that it is clear.  Scientists had always found it difficult to get to grips with how ants did the tunnelling and how exactly they navigated underground because – to state the obvious – they could not observe them doing it properly.

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So, you have something that works as both habitat and nutrition for the ants, which meant that all the astronauts had to do was to sit back and observe how they went about the business of tunnelling without any gravity. The answer was pretty much as usual but the question had to be answered.  The main difference was that the tunnels were wigglier than those made by the same species in the same gel back home on Earth.

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Image Credit

However, business folk were not tardy when it came to recognizing the commercial potential of this amazing aqua blue gel and soon enough the old concept of the ant farm was overhauled to this amazing sight.  So, it’s not just users of non-stick frying pans who have benefited from the efforts of NASA after all!

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