fyeahuniverse:

^{“Pac-Man in Brazil” by Don Pettit on the ISS}

jtotheizzoe:

Package Free, Zero-Waste Grocery Store to Debut in Austin

I don’t get to toot my own city’s horn quite as much as I would like to, so I’ll gladly take that opportunity now. I recently heard about a new grocery store debuting this summer in Austin called In.gredients. They will be the first package-free and zero-waste grocery store in the United States, an idea with small footholds in Latin America and Europe.

I’m really intrigued by this idea. You bring in your own reusable containers for, well, everything. That means no package waste, which is a huge fraction of the waste that goes into our landfills. It means less processed foods, which support subsidized and often unhealthy corn and soy products, in addition to a bunch of unpronounceable chemicals. It means seasonal, local foods, reducing transportation costs, pollution and promoting natural agriculture. It means less food waste, since you only buy what you need, and you don’t throw away spoiled food.

This is an environmentally-friendly idea that I think could be adapted in almost any city. It could also give major grocery chains some ideas on how to improve their big box offerings. 

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Is this an admirable but unscalable solution? Or is this something you’d like to see everywhere?

wow, nice! what a great concept. i definitely want to check this place out when it opens

i probably talk about how much i don’t like texas more than i should. austin is such a cool city.

the-beauty-of-nature:

A cross section through a pine needle.

i can tell you guys all you need to know about this anatomical anomaly

it’s got a suberized cuticle, rosette cells in the mesophyll, an endodermis, vascular tissue embedded in transfusion tissue, and resin ducts

it’s a very special kind of leaf

matthen:

Visualising extinctions over the past million 531 years.  The size of the circle shows how the biodiversity of the earth differs from the long-term trend.  The resulting fluctuations seem to repeat every 62 million years or so, with 5 main extinction events in total.  The most recent was of course the end of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago.  Does this mean the Earth is due another?! [This follows the analysis of an interesting nature article]  [more] [code]

(Source: brilliantbotany)

heythereuniverse:

Human Tooth.

heythereuniverse:

Amaranthaceae Pollen.

omg!!!! that’s the plant that i’m researching!! wow omg this is so cool. look at it! wow.

scinerds:

Funaria hygrometrica peristome by gjshepherd_br

This is a scanning electron microscope image of the peristome of a Funaria hygrometrica capsule. In this case, the outer peristome teeth are attached to the central disc (rare), and as they elongate or shrink with changes in humidity, the whole structures twists, opening up in dry weather and closing when it’s humid. Like other mosses, peristome tooth formation in Funaria is quite complex and their structure is rich in small details.

heythereuniverse:

Anther.

the-star-stuff:

Patterns in Nature: Mysterious Earth

brilliantbotany:

This is the Indian Pipe plant, an eerie-looking plant, in my opinion. Monotropa uniflora is a heterotroph. That means that it doesn’t photosynthesize. Instead, it’s a parasitic plant that relies on mycorrhizal fungi for its nutrients.
Why is it white? No chlorophyll, no green.
It’s also known as the Ghost Plant, and the Corpse Plant. 

thesleepscience:

Rectangular Serpents by Guido Mocafico

laughingsquid:

Where Do Goldfish Come From?

jtotheizzoe:

Seeding The Future

Can you imagine a world without plants? I can’t. Plants are our carpet, our ceiling, our walls, our food. From mankind’s point of view, they are something akin to nature’s architecture. Beyond their stationary, oft-overlooked physical forms, they are also a domain of life that we rely on to breathe and to eat.

As we continue to affect climate change and destroy huge swaths of green Earth, what will become of these species? The Kew Gardens, home of the world’s largest living plant collection, has now amassed mankind’s largest seed bank. It’s a botanical insurance policy for a future Earth, as well as a museum of visual wonders.

This video takes you through the project and features some of the collection’s most exotic seeds. The photomicroscopy is amazing, full of proof that nature’s functional forms can take on alien, exotic beauty.

As Wolfgang tells us in the video:

There’s no technological reason why any plant species should become extinct. We have every opportunity to pass on entire botanical heritage intact to future generations.

(↬ Brain Pickings)

wow

really great

futurescope:

‘Cyberplasm,’ a Micro-Robot Modeled After the Sea Lamprey, Could Swim Around Inside You

You could have a robotic one of these swimming inside of you in just five years, researchers say.

Tiny microelectromechanical machines running Magic Schoolbus-style through our bodies are the pursuit of nano labs across the globe, but a team of researchers jointly backed by the American National Science Foundation and the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council wants something more: a tiny biomimicking robot that functions like a living creature loaded with sensors derived from animal cells.

Called “Cyberplasm,” this robot would mash up biomimicking robotic components with actual mammalian cells to create robot systems and sensors that respond to stimuli like chemicals and light the way living organisms do. “Eye” and “nose” sensors would be derived from animal cells, while an artificial electronic nervous system will record data from Cyberplasm’s surroundings and respond to external stimuli via artificial muscles that are powered by glucose.

The whole Cyberplasm system would be modeled on the sea lamprey, an Atlantic-dwelling creature with a simple nervous system that should be relatively easy to mimic. Using the lamprey as a model, the researchers hope to produce a one-centimeter-long prototype capable of swimming around and sensing on its own. Future versions could be built at the nano-scale, perfect for swimming around inside the human body to detect and potentially treat diseases.

It sounds like far-out science, but it may not be so far off. The researchers are currently developing the components of Cyberplasm individually, but barring any major setbacks they think they could have their tiny robot working in the real world within five years.

[via] [more] [photo credit:U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]

wow