Nobody Knows What Built These Weird Little Web Structures
From wired.com: Something in the Peruvian Amazon is making weird, intricate structures that resemble white picket fences surrounding an Isengard-like spire. No one has any idea who the mysterious craftsbug (fungus? spider?) is, or what the structure is even used for, excepting the fence part, which almost makes sense. Nobody, not even the scientists. We […]
The Kepler Space Telescope: The equivalent of keeping your gaze steady on a grain of salt from a quarter mile away
From nasa.gov: Image credit: NASA Ames/Wendy Stenzel For four years, the Kepler spacecraft continuously and simultaneously observed and collected data on more than 150,000 stars. Its mission: to determine if Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zone of stars like our sun are common or rare. The stability of Kepler’s pointing is measured in degrees, […]
The Color of Fire: How Palette Choice Impacts Maps of Yosemite’s Rim Fire
By Betsy Mason from wired.com: Last week we posted a map of the Rim fire’s progression into Yosemite National Park from Inciweb. That map (see below) uses random, qualitative colors to represent the area burned by the fire each day. The result is colorful, and as the headline says, frightening. The wild colors make the fire […]