mcdspot

Beautiful photos of some of the most alien landscapes on earth.

Ever wondered what a spider’s silk spigots look like under an electron microscope? Well, now you can put your mind at ease.

via Wired:

“The scaly-foot snail’s shell employs a structure “unlike any other known mollusk or any other known natural armor,” the researchers report…Ortiz and her colleagues found that the shell consists of a 250-micrometer-thick inner layer of aragonite, a common shell material, sheathed in a 150-micrometer-thick layer of squishy organic materials. The organic layer is encased in a thin, stiff outer layer (about 30 micrometers thick) made of hard iron sulfide–based scales. The gastropod wears larger versions of the scales on its exposed foot.”

via sg51

If anyone else has been disgusted by the development along the rim of Alabama’s Little River Canyon, you’ll be happy to learn that The Nature Conservancy has bought 2,186 acres adjacent to the canyon which will provide a permanent buffer to development.

It would take me several weeks to fully explain my agreement and understanding of this concept, but some new research has shown that spending time in nature changes our values–for the better. Suffice it to say that I’m going camping soon. Any takers?

via Hackworth.

Manta rays are profoundly strange and beautiful.

do not—I repeat, do not—walk over several adult hippos in order to attack some younger hippos.

There are as many as sixteen 2-billion-year old nuclear reactors in the rocks beneath Gabon.

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from Tom @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

After an interesting talk with Daniel Crabtree last month about the banded garden spider, I did some research and discovered that there is a huge debate as to why they decorate their webs. Is it aesthetics, or does it serve some utility, such as keeping birds from flying into them? But wouldn’t they want to keep birds and other predators away? Do the patterns attract bugs?

The Stone Trees of Yakutsk are rather amazing.

There are places so barren and foreign that they can only be beautiful beyond our reckoning.

Urban decay in Detroit has created a high concentration of feral houses.

Good lord. The fungus Cordyceps infects insects by having its spores penetrate an insect’s exoskeleton and then work their way into its body, where fungus then starts to grow. Meanwhile, the insect wanders up a plant and clamps down, whereupon Cordyceps grows a long stalk that sprouts of the dead host’s body. It can then shower down spores on unfortunate insects below.

I would like to invite anyone who has ever camped or hiked in the Sipsey Wilderness or at Mt. Cheaha to read John Randolph’s amazing book The Battle for Alabama’s Wilderness: Saving the Great Gymnasiums of Nature. Mr. Randolph tells the fascinating story of how Alabama’s Sipsey, Cheaha, and Duggar Mountain areas were protected from timber interests in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, and he tells a compelling story. The official description from Amazon is helpful, so I’ll quote it in full:

The grassroots effort to preserve Alabama’s Wilderness Areas spanned a period of thirty years . . . The first battle, to establish the Sipsey Wilderness in the Bankhead National Forest, was the catalyst for a profound reform of national policy regarding public land preserves in the eastern United States. It, and the later campaigns – to establish the Cheaha Wilderness, to enlarge the Sipsey, and to create the Dugger Mountain Wilderness – are all classic tales of citizen activists overcoming the quagmire of federal bureaucracy and the intransigence of hostile politicians. By mandate of the 1964 Wilderness Act, an area that has been designated as part of the National Wilderness Preservation system (by an Act of Congress) cannot by commercially developed and must remain forever roadless. Such designation protects remnants of America’s natural heritage in their original state, for their own worth. But early political opposition to proposed designation or expansion of wilderness areas in Alabama was based on the belief that limiting development of these lands would negatively impact the state’s powerful timber industry. In response to such opposition, serious environmental activism was born in Alabama. Using quotations from newspaper reports, Congressional testimonies, personal interviews, and his own recollections, John Randolph traces the development of Alabama’s environmental movement from its early beginnings with the founding of The Alabama Conservancy in the late 1960s and early ’70s to the continuing preservation efforts of present-day activist groups, such as the Alabama Environmental Council, the Cahaba River Society, and the Alabama Wilderness Alliance. The Battle for Alabama’s Wilderness permits all of the players – pro and con – to speak for themselves, but the obvious heroes – people like Mary Burks, Blanche Dean, Joab Thomas, and Pete Conroy – are embodiments of the vision, determination, hope, and persistence required of those who ultimately succeed in their preservation efforts. Randolph’s account is, in the broad sense, a practical, step-by-step testament to the power of grassroots citizen groups who are committed to a common cause and inspired by a shared ideal.

After reading this I have no doubt that the figures described in the book deserve our sincere thanks for helping to create and preserve these wilderness areas, almost all of which I have explored and love dearly. The least we can do is hear the story of what it took to do it.

Fata Morgana

A fata morgana is a mirage, an optical phenomenon which results from a temperature inversion. Fata Morgana are usually seen in the morning after a cold night which has resulted in the radiation of heat into space. In this form of mirage, objects on the horizon or even beyond the horizon, such as islands, cliffs, ships or icebergs, appear elongated and elevated, like “fairy tale castles”.

Description here.