See-Through Animal Photos, Translucent Creatures Wallpapers, Download, Photos -- National Geographic
Translucent Creatures
Take an inside look at extreme underwater creatures.
YouTube - Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes
MBARI researchers Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler used video taken by unmanned, undersea robots called remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to study barreleye fish in the deep waters just offshore of Central California. At depths of 600 to 800 meters (2,000 to 2,600 feet)
Arctic Images by Kevin Raskoff
Images taken during the 2002 and 2005 NOAA Office of Exploration sponsored "Hidden Ocean" cruises to the Arctic Ocean.
Most of these images were made of animals collected from the deep sea by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).
YouTube - Operation Deep Scope 2005: Eye-in-the-Sea Bioluminescence
The deep-sea schyphozoan jellyfish, Atolla wyvillei, as seen from the Johnson-Sea-Link submersible with the lights on and then in the laboratory, after capture, with the lights off, exhibiting a burglar alarm display. Video courtesy of Operation Deep Scope 2005 Exploration, Edith A. Widder, NOAA-OE.
YouTube - New Deep Sea Creatures Discovered
These creatures were filmed in the deep sea between 1000/5000 meters deep and most of them are completely new species discovered with a new submarine which was used for the first time to make this documentary.
YouTube - Deep Sea - luminescent animals
Scenes and music are from the movie "Deep Blue". I rearranged them together to this little video. It shows mostly luminescent jellyfish that are living in the deep sea.
The Deep Book
The Deep
The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
By Claire Nouvian
Featuring 220 color photographs of deep ocean species, some photographed for the first time.
The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition - Multimedia
Deep Sea Creatures
Scientists have speculated that as many as 10 million species may inhabit the deep sea - biodiversity comparable to the world's richest tropical rainforests. Because deep-sea species live in rarely disturbed environments and tend to be slow growing, late maturing and endemic, they are exceptionally vulnerable to changes to their environment, and therefore, particularly at risk from the devastation wreaked by deep sea bottom trawlers and potentially, extinction.
Image Gallery: Alien Life of the Antarctic | LiveScience.com
Three sampling expeditions aboard the German research vessel "Polarsterni" revealed hundreds of new animal species in the depths of the Southern Ocean. UFO claim over wind farm damage
UFO enthusiasts are claiming damage to a Lincolnshire wind farm turbine was caused by a mystery aircraft.
The turbine at Conisholme lost one 66ft (20m) blade and another was badly damaged in the early hours of Sunday.
County councillor for the area Robert Palmer said he had seen a "round, white light that seemed to be hovering".
Ecotricity, which owns the site, said while investigations continued they were not ruling anything out - but the extent of damage was "unique".
The turbine is one of 20 at the Conisholme site, which has been only been fully operational since April 2008. The broken blade has been recovered and is being examined.
Local ufologists said they had received many reports of activity in the area and had teams searching for clues.
To make one of these blades fall off, or to bend it, takes a lot 
Dale Vince, Ecotricity
Mr Palmer said: "I actually saw a white light - a round, white light that seemed to be hovering.
"That is the only way I can explain it - it wasn't a flare-like light - it was just round, white light with a slight red edge to it that seemed to be over the wind turbines."
Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, said the company was keeping an open mind about the incident.
"We don't have an explanation at the moment as to what the cause was," he said.
"We have been crawling all over it and have sent bits off for analysis to see if we can work out what caused it.
"Until we have some idea, some plausible explanation that it was not a UFO, I don't think we should rule it out".
He added: "To make one of these blades fall off, or to bend it, takes a lot."
Enceladus has 'spreading surface'
A US space agency (Nasa) probe has witnessed a moon of Saturn do something very unusual and Earth-like.
Pictures of the icy satellite Enceladus suggest its surface splits and spreads apart - just like the ocean floor on our planet splits to create new crust.
The information was released at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
The data from the Cassini spacecraft is said to strengthen the idea that Enceladus harbours a sub-surface sea.
"Bit by bit, we're accumulating the evidence that there is liquid water on Enceladus," said Carolyn Porco, team leader of the Cassini imaging group and one of the senior scientists on the mission.
The observation on Earth that the sea floor is splitting at mid-ocean ridges and moving apart was one of the great scientific discoveries of the 20th Century; and became a key feature in the theory of plate tectonics - the idea that massive slabs of the Earth's surface move around and are recycled.
Cassini sees something very similar on Enceladus.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Actor robots take Japanese stage
First there were dancing robots, then house-sitting robots and now a new breed of acting robots is making its big debut on the Japanese stage.
The play, which had its premiere at Osaka University, is one of Japan's first robot-human theatre productions.
The machines were specially programmed to speak lines with human actors and move around the stage with them.
Playwright Oriza Hirata says the work raises questions about the relationship between humanity and technology.
The play, called Hataraku Watashi (I, Worker), is set in the near future.
It focuses on a young couple who own two housekeeping robots, one of which loses its motivation to work.
In the play, the robot complains that it has been forced into boring and demeaning jobs and enters into a discussion with the humans about its role in their lives.
So far, the play is only 20 minutes long but it is hoped to become a full-length production by 2010.
The Wakamaru robot is manufactured by Mitsubushi but the software to train it for the stage was developed over two months at the university.
The 1-m (3-ft) tall humanoid robot is best known as a mechanical house-sitter and secretary.
But soon they may be signing autographs or trying to roll away from paparazzi.
No word yet on whether they are pleased with the apparent job promotion.
NASA Scientists Suggest Planting a Lunar Garden
Mustard on the moon?
NASA scientists are suggesting that before sending humans back to the moon, we should launch plants there and watch them grow.
Dr. Chris McKay, my former astrobiology mentor at NASA, and plant biologist Dr. Robert Ferl of the University of Florida, presented their plan at a meeting of lunar scientists at NASA Ames this week.
The idea is simple: Fly a simple plant habitat to the moon. Bring along seeds (you don't have to care for them or feed them on the launch pad or the flight out). Germinate them inside your lunar plant-growth module on the surface and see how they cope with the low gravity, temperature and pressure as well as the high radiation by monitoring their gene expression. You can even go a step further and add lunar soil to the chamber to monitor the toxicity of the soil or the content of the soil.
Like the white mouse is for mammals, Arabidopsis thaliana (a member of the Mustard family) is the model organism for plants. It can go from seed to seed in six weeks, has a small, fully sequenced genome, can live under low-powered LED light, and has simple techniques for introducing fluorescent marker proteins into its genome. This allows the plant to be used as a highly sensitive bio-marker (indicator) for radiation damage or other stresses.
You simply attach a Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) to a protein known to be produced in response to a given condition or stress. Then when you look at the plant under 488 nm light (blue light) you can see if it is glowing. A green glow indicates where the tagged bio-marker protein is being expressed.
In addition to being GFP-markable, Arabidopsis has been shown to be able to grow at 10 kPa, or one-tenth of Earth's sea-level atmospheric pressure and closer to Martian pressure. Arabidopsis seeds can also be sterilized before launch to be compliant with planetary protection measures designed to insure that Earth microbes don't hitch a ride to space and interfere with future search for life efforts.
Water, Water Everywhere on Mars
The red planet was once awash in water, say scientists -- not boiling water, but benign seas that may have been suitable for life.
"There was apparently pervasive water present during the first 600 to 700 million years," said Brown University geologist John Mustard, co-author of a paper scheduled to be published today in Nature.
Mustard's team studied data returned by the Compact Reconnaisance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, an instrument designed to find traces of minerals that interact with water.
Earlier studies have found evidence of ancient gushers, and the Mars Phoenix Lander recently found ice. But Mustard's analysis provides the clearest picture yet of planet-wide hydrological impacts -- and, most tantalizingly, CRISM showed widespread deposits of clay-like minerals that form only at relatively low temperatures.
Ancient Martian oceans may have been salty, but at least they weren't boiling. And perhaps, said Mustard, they weren't dead.
"I think the prospects for present life were dim, but for past life, during this habitable era, they were really quite good," he said.
As for whether evidence of life will remain after four billion years, Mustard said that "it's probably better-preserved on Mars than on the Earth, where plate tectonics has recycled the crust."
He continued, "On Mars, many more elements from that early history are still present. And we do think whiffs of life are preserved in the Earth record, so I think Mars stands a good chance of preserving signatures, if they ever existed."China could reach Moon before US
China is capable of sending astronauts back to the Moon before the US does, the head of Nasa has told the BBC.
The space agency plans to return people to the lunar surface by 2020 using its next-generation spacecraft, Orion.
But it is just possible the first people on the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 could be planting a flag with five stars, not 50.
Dr Michael Griffin said China had the know-how to reach the Moon within the next decade - should they wish to.
Speaking to the BBC News website during a visit to London, he said: "Certainly it is possible that if China wants to put people on the Moon, and if it wishes to do so before the United States, it certainly can. As a matter of technical capability, it absolutely can."
Chinese officials say there is no plan and no timetable for a Moon landing, and have expressed doubt that one could be made by 2020.
Ambitious programmes
But Sun Laiyan, chief of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), told journalists last year that an eventual lunar excursion was inevitable.
On whether it mattered who reached the Moon next, Dr Griffin replied: "I'm not a psychologist, so I can't say if it matters or not. That would just be an opinion and I don't want to air an opinion in an area that I'm not qualified to discuss."
But there is a perception among some in the space industry that America's long-held dominance in space exploration is slipping as other nations enter the fray.
A recent report by the US consultancy firm, Futron, found other countries were expanding their space capabilities at an astonishing rate, "threatening US space leadership".
China has sent two manned missions into space over the last five years. The first, in 2003, carried "yuhangyuan" (astronaut) Yang Liwei into orbit for 21 hours aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft.
On the second, two spacemen flew aboard the Shenzhou 6 craft, spending nearly five days in orbit. Another manned mission is set to go ahead in October, just after the Beijing Olympic Games.
Dr Griffin said the US and China were now making the first tentative steps towards collaborating with each other on space exploration.
"We do have some early co-operative initiatives that we are trying to put in place with China, mostly centred around scientific enterprises. I think that's a great place to start," he said.
Phoenix Mars Mission - Home
Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
This image was acquired by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager on the 31st Martian day of the mission, or Sol 31 (June 26, 2008), after the May 25, 2008 landing. This image shows the trenches informally called "Snow White 1" (left), "Snow White 2" (right), and within the Snow White 2 trench, the smaller scraping area called "Snow White 3." The Snow White 3 scraped area is about 5 centimeters (2 inches) deep. The dug and scraped areas are within the diggiing site called "Wonderland."
The Snow White trenches and scraping prove that scientists can take surface soil samples, subsurface soil samples, and icy samples all from one unit. Scientists want to test samples to determine if some ice in the soil may have been liquid in the past during warmer climate cycles.
Phoenix Scrapes To Icy Soil In Wonderland
June 27, 2008 NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander scraped to icy soil in the "Wonderland" area on Thursday, June 26, confirming that surface soil, subsurface soil and icy soil can be sampled at a single trench.
Phoenix scientists are now assured they have a complete soil-layer profile in Wonderland's "Snow White" extended trench.
By rasping to icy soil, the robotic arm on Phoenix proved it could flatten the layer where soil meets ice, exposing the icy flat surface below the soil. Scientists can now proceed with plans to scoop and scrape samples into Phoenix's various analytical instruments. Scientists will test samples to determine if some ice in the soil may have been liquid in the past during warmer climate cycles.
Mars suitable for growing asparagus
NASA scientists are pretty excited about the initial results of the Phoenix Mars lander's "flawless" first wet chemistry experiment which has revealed the Red Planet's soil to be "a close analog to surface soils found in the upper dry valleys in Antarctica", as wet chemistry lead investigator Sam Kounaves put it.
With 80 per cent of said test - carried out in the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) - done and dusted, Kounaves explained: "The alkalinity of the soil at this location is definitely striking. At this specific location, one-inch into the surface layer, the soil is very basic, with a pH of between eight and nine. We also found a variety of components of salts that we haven't had time to analyze and identify yet, but that include magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride.
"This is more evidence for water because salts are there. We also found a reasonable number of nutrients, or chemicals needed by life as we know it. Over time, I've come to the conclusion that the amazing thing about Mars is not that it's an alien world, but that in many aspects, like mineralogy, it's very much like Earth."
How the Waorani tribe made me relax
Before she went to the Ecuadorean jungle to live with the Waorani tribe, Karen Morris-Lanz was a BlackBerry-toting workaholic single mother from Milton Keynes. Here she explains how life with this remote people helped teach her to relax.
With a hut, a log, water and a hammock - and no BlackBerry or teenage daughters - there was a shock phase after I arrived in the almost toy-like plane that landed on a patch of grass deep in the jungles of Ecuador.
Bameno is four days down river on a dugout canoe from the nearest town and does not, as yet, have a postal address.
There are times when you just have to get on with it to survive. My shock of landing did not last. I was living with the Waorani tribe. The business of the tribe was gathering and hunting for food.
The jungle was our supermarket. It provided what we needed. The Waorani know everything there is to know about the world they live in. It is so different to our life.
For example, I had taken some biodegradable hair conditioner but it did not work well. My hair soon became dry. Debota my hostess gave me a fruit from the forest that we heated in the fire. Her daughter Yamenca put it on my hair and my hair quickly regained condition.
[...]
Life in outer space? Astronomers hunt aliens
The project, led by Japanese astronomers, will bring together a dozen or more observatories from all over the country to study one star that researchers see as a potential home to an extraterrestrial civilization.
"Everyone wonders at least once in their lifetime whether space is infinite and whether aliens really do exist," said Shinya Narusawa, chief researcher at Nishi-Harima Astronomical Observatory in western Japan.
The search for aliens and UFOs is not new to Japan. Last year, unidentified flying objects grabbed the headlines after a lawmaker submitted a question to the cabinet on whether the country had confirmed any cases of their existence. The government's answer: no.
June 18, 1178: English Monks Observe 'Lunar' Explosion
Courtesy NASA
1178: Just after sunset, according to the English monk and chronicler Gervase of Canterbury, five monks watch the moon explode into flames.
Gervase said the observers were looking at a new crescent moon when the upper part "suddenly split in two. From the midpoint of this division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out … fire, hot coals and sparks…. The body of the moon, which was below, writhed … throbbed like a wounded snake."
Since the timing appears to have been about right, what they may have seen -- according to at least one astronomer -- was the asteroid impact that led to the creation of the lunar crater Giordano Bruno. Others doubt this theory, because there is no historical record of the subsequent meteor shower that would have been visible following a collision of this kind.
What the monks may have actually seen, the current thinking goes, was the explosion of a meteor that, from their vantage point, was passing in front of the moon.
The crater, incidentally, was named for the Italian philosopher, priest and cosmologist Giordano Bruno, burned at the stake for heresy in 1600, during the Roman Inquisition. Bruno is considered an early martyr for science, perhaps the first. The crater named for him measures roughly 14 miles wide and is located on the far side of the moon.
Gervase -- who was ordained by Thomas à Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170 -- is remembered mainly for his Chronica, an ecclesiastical history of Canterbury. Gervase died in 1205.