Perlan 2 World Altitude Record
Sep 06, 2017
Congratulations to our client, Airbus Perlan 2 in making history today, setting a new world altitude record for gliding 52,172 feet over the Patagonia region of Argentina.
Earth Photographed From Mars
Feb 01, 2014
The twilight sky and Martian horizon taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover includes Earth as the brightest point of light in the night sky.
That I may live to witness the discovery of life on other planets is all I ask.
3-D Map Of Universe
Jun 20, 2011
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Astronomers unveil the most complete 3-D map of the local universe (out to a distance of 380 million light-years) ever created.
10 years in the making.
Test Your Connection Speed
May 10, 2011
We Heart Mars
Apr 03, 2011
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Fractals In Motion
Feb 21, 2011
Mesmerizing video of a fractal landscape in motion.
Friends, this is what the 4th dimension looks like.
Treat yourself. Watch it full screen.
And below, fractals occuring in nature.
Peg O' The Day : Sun Surface
Nov 04, 2010
50 Years Of Space Exploration
Aug 30, 2010
Click to enlarge a fascinating (and very large) map illustrating the last 50 years of space exploration.
The Quietest Place On Earth
May 06, 2010
Drum roll for...Orfield Laboratories in Minnesota, awarded by the Guinness Book of World
Records 'The Quietest
Place on Earth.'
How do they do it?
Start with a room
within a room, within a room. A six-sided anechoic
chamber floats over a pit on I-beams that sit on top of
springs. And then a five-sided chamber of identical construction surrounds all that.
Both chambers are made of double-wall
steel-insulation-steel and are held within a larger room that was built with solid one
foot thick concrete walls and ceiling panels. (Keeping up?) The smaller room is filled
with 3.3 feet thick fiberglass acoustic wedges.
On January 21st of 2004 engineers measured the room at negative 9.4 dB (with A-weighting), thus
earning it the GBOWR title.
The result is that all reverberation is removed; all sounds that aren't coming from your own body disappear. After a few moments in the anechoic chamber you hear your heart beat, your blood pulse, and the sound of your own ear buzzing and your body functioning like you've never heard before.
In complete silence, you lose all sense of space and surroundings. The absence of reflected sound and reverberation makes "feeling out" the room impossible.
"Why?" you're asking.
Orfield Labs specializes in acoustic research for a wide range of products, including motorcycles, dishwashers, and artificial heart valves.
Full-Length Redwood Portrait
May 04, 2010
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At 1,500 years old and 300 feet tall this titan in California's Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park has the most complex crown scientists have ever mapped.
Taken by Michael Nichols, this photomosaic is composed of 84 images using three cameras, a robotic dolly, and a gyroscope. Nat Geo sent him to spend an entire year hiking 2,000 miles from Big Sur to the Chetco River in Oregon photographing redwood trees.
His mission was to capture the majesty of some of the tallest trees on Earth, some of which have been standing for two thousand years.
The result is the first-ever full length portrait of a giant California redwood.
So, can you find the five people in this picture?
Technical assistance: Ken Geiger, NG Staff; Nathan Williamson; Walter Boggs, David Mathews, and Kenji Yamaguchi, NG Staff; Jim C. Spickler; Giacomo Renzullo; Marty Reed, Steve Sillett, and Marie Antoine, Humboldt State University.
Russian Ground-Effect Airplane
Apr 24, 2010
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Bigger than an Airbus A380, this ground-effect "ship" was commissioned as a high-speed military transport. Designed to cruise at ten feet above the water surface and land in a 15-20 foot swell.
Armed with Moskit cruise missiles, a hit by just four of them sinks any known vessel.
This Goliath sits rotting on the shores of the Caspian Sea like some discarded prop from Star Wars.
Diagrams Make It Better
Mar 17, 2010
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Peg O' The Day : Monster Crab
Oct 21, 2009
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Known for their ability to crack
coconuts with its strong pincers and eat the contents (go figure that p.s.i), he's probably at
the limit of how big terrestrial animals with exoskeletons can get
under the prevailing conditions. Unlike other crabs, their body is divided into four
regions; the cephalic lobe, forepart, trunk, and opisthosoma.
And should you have the misfortune to get pinched by one of these giants (assuming you’re still conscious), you’d do well to remember this cool-headed advice from Victorian naturalist Thomas Hale Streets:
"It may be interesting to know that in such a dilemma a gentle titillation of the under soft parts of the body with any light material will cause the crab to loose its hold."
Tickle it as you scream...then run.
Peg 'O The Day : Hermit Crab In Glass Shell
Sep 16, 2009
To better study the 60 species of hermit crab living on their shorelines, scientists at the New Zealand Marine Studies Center and Aquarium created these beautiful glass shells.
Says curator Adelle O'Neill, "We brought the shells out there and sure enough in a week to ten days the hermit had decided that the glass house was better than their own house and had made it their home."
And glass is made from sand. Nice.
World's First Digital Image
Feb 16, 2009
This picture was scanned from a photograph on an NBS mechanical drum scanner, processed by a SEAC computer, and displayed on an oscilloscope.
Darwin Online
Oct 16, 2008
Third Rock
May 16, 2008
Towing Icebergs
Feb 12, 2008
No, it's not a political metaphor, it's an idea for any corporation looking to link itself with an environmental message.
Lasso a 200,000-ton iceberg off Newfoundland with an anchor handling tug (you
can just make out the eight-inch poly rope on the left side), tow it down the North American coast and park it off Coney Island.
Of course, it melts on the voyage South but that's the point.
Plant a billboard on it that reads: IGNORE ME NOW
Don't think the New York Post would.
Guaranteed page hits : 100m.
Cost : +/-$200k