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(Source: philphys)

scipsy:

2011 The science year in brief: an interactive guide.

sciencecenter:

The science of twins

If they have identical DNA, what accounts for the differences between twins? For some scientists, twins represent the ultimate way to tease out the competing effects of nature versus nurture. NatGeo has an excellent article about the science taking place at the Twins Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio - click through to read it. Also, definitely check out the amazing twin portrait gallery.

latimes:

Whale sightings something to spout about: Spotters have logged a record 163 sightings so far this December, more than they have seen at this point in 28 years.

Photo: A gray whale reveals its fluke while making a deep dive. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

(Source: Los Angeles Times)

sciencecenter:

With a name like Devil’s Garden, you know the science has to be cool

A Devil’s Garden is a forest clearing filled with a monoculture of low-lying plants, carefully curated by ants. The ants enter into symbiosis with the shrubs. In return for providing shelter for the ant colonies, the lone plant species in the Devil’s Garden receives the best maintenance that a few million ants can provide. The ants attack any other herbivores, and inject formic acid into competing saplings. They drive off all of the other plants until only the ant’s preferred plant species remains. Since queen ants are continuously replaced, Devil’s Gardens can exist almost indefinitely. One garden in Peru is suspected over being over 800 years old.

neiture:

Setting moon, Yosemite National Park | image by Massimo Squillace

(Source: ecocides)

(Source: philphys)

(Source: humblebumble)

itsfullofstars:

Fastest Rotating Star Found in Neighboring Galaxy

From NASA today:

This artist’s concept pictures the fastest rotating star found to date. The massive, bright young star, called VFTS 102, rotates at a million miles per hour, or 100 times faster than our sun does. Centrifugal forces from this dizzying spin rate have flattened the star into an oblate shape and spun off a disk of hot plasma, seen edge on in this view from a hypothetical planet. The star may have “spun up” by accreting material from a binary companion star. The rapidly evolving companion later exploded as a supernova. The whirling star lies 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

Source. Via @spacefuture.