Folding Lava
By Justin Reznick
(Source: lori-rocks)
Fulgurites (from the Latin fulgur meaning thunderbolt) are natural hollow glass tubes formed in quartsoze sand, silica, or soil by lightning strikes. They are formed when lightning with a temperature of at least 1,800 °C (3,270 °F) instantaneously melts silica on a conductive surface and fuses grains together; the fulgurite tube is the cooled product.
In 1996 the International Center for Lightning Research and Testing excavated this fulgurite to a depth of nearly 6 meters, then removed it for museum display.
(via wikipedia and Lightning Research Laboratory (UF))
A New Hub for Solar Tech Blooms in Japan | NG
What appears to be an array of metal flower petals is not an art installation but part of a cutting-edge solar-power system meant to address the critical power shortage Japan now faces in the wake of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
The disaster, which triggered a crippling nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, reignited worldwide debate about the safety of nuclear power and forced Japan to reevaluate its energy strategy.
Of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors, 52 have been shut down for maintenance; the remaining two are set to go offline this spring. The reactors are likely to remain inoperative while Japan’s central and local governments assess which (if any) of them can be restarted, leaving the country to make up for a 30-percent loss in power generation.
Rising electricity prices and limited supply threaten to hamper the recovery for manufacturers. So it makes sense that Solar Techno Park, the first solar-power research facility focusing on multiple technologies in Japan, is operated not by the government but by a unit of the Tokyo-based JFE, the world’s fifth-largest steelmaker. Given the energy-intensive nature of steel production, reliable power will be key to the future of Japan’s steel industry. The facility, which opened in October last year, is developing advanced technology in solar light and thermal power generation that it aims to apply both in Japan and overseas.
The Falls Of Yellowstone (by Stuck in Customs)
(Source: crownedrose)
Materials That Fix Themselves
The quest for a self-repairing material has been an on going one, for years chemists have dreamed of being able to artificially recreate something that seems so trivial in biology. Now a team at the University of California, San Diego have achieved that using hydrogels. Hydrogels (or aquagels) are hydrophilic polymers which are highly absorbent and have a degree of flexibility very similar to natural tissues, allowing them to be prime components of tissue scaffolding. By manipulating the side chains of the constituent polymers, UCSD scientists have managed to achieve polymers that once broken can rejoin or “heal” by latching on to one of these “dangling” side chains.
Image
(Source: wolf-teeth)
Amur Leopard 2 by JP Diroll (Durall069) on Flickr.
