COSMIC BEACH PARTY

More than half the world’s mangroves have been lost over the last century but all of those surviving in Sri Lanka, one of their most important havens, are now to be protected in an unprecedented operation.

The organiser of the project, the biggest of its kind, see the role of women as the key to its success.

Mangroves are an important protection against climate change as they sequester up to five times more carbon than other forests, area for area. They protect coastlines against flooding, including tsunamis, and provide vital habitat for marine animals, especially crabs, shrimp and juvenile fish.

In an initiative designed to prevent any more being cut down in Sri Lanka and to boost some of the poorest communities in the world, women will be offered small loans and training to start businesses.

Can you turn sand into a liquid?

When air is bubbled through a tank of fine sand, the sand starts to behave like a liquid, meaning you can float objects in it and stir the mixture like water.

This process is called fluidisation. Although the sand starts to ‘swim’, it doesn’t actually become a liquid. It’s a solid, behaving a lot like a fluid. The air gets in between the sand particles, lubricating the whole mixture and letting the sand particles flow over each other, in a sort of two-part fluid of sand and oxygen.

See on Scoop.it - The future of medicine and health

Cuba has for several years had a promising therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer. The 55-year trade embargo led by the US made sure that Cuba was mostly where it stayed. Until—maybe—now. The Obama administration has, of course, been trying to normalize relations with the island nation. And last month, during New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s visit to Havana, Roswell Park Cancer Institute finalized an agreement with Cuba’s Center for Molecular Immunology to develop a lung cancer vaccine and begin clinical trials in the US. Essentially, US researchers will bring the Cimavax vaccine stateside and get on track for approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

Underwater 

Mexican photographer Jorge Cervera Hauser captures stunning shots of underwater creatures as they move a bout through the sea. Shooting in Baja and the Mexican Caribbean, each photograph was taken far away from the coast, in the open ocean.

Artist Name: Frédéric Vayssouze-Faure   

Video: NASA’s new hybrid aircraft.

In 2007, the Department of Water Protection in Los Angeles, California did a test on their water and detected high levels of bromate, a chemical that forms from the reaction of bromide, chlorine, and sunlight, and which is a known carcinogen (a chemical that causes cancer). When they realized the problem, they puzzled over how to stop sunlight from reaching the water while they were in the process of building a new underground reservoir that would permanently solve the problem - they couldn’t simply leave the water, since it was used to service almost 600,000 people in downtown and South Los Angeles. In the meantime, they needed a way to keep the sunlight off the water.

And the award for ‘most dedicated mother in nature’ goes to…

…the deep-sea octopus, Graneledone boreopacifica.

This tough mama currently holds the record for longest egg-brooding period of any animal—about 53 months.

Yes, she spent almost 4-and-a-half years guarding her eggs vigilantly from would-be predators, never leaving her spot. The research team that first discovered her via remote-operated vehicle (ROV) revisited her multiple times, only to observe her physically wasting away and looking weaker with each visit.

Why does she do this? To increase her young’s chances of survival. By guarding her eggs over a long period of time, she provides her young with a longer developmental period. G. boreopacific hatchlings emerge as miniature adults, skipping the larval stage entirely.

World’s toughest job indeed. 

Happy mother’s day!

Video source: MBARI

Geometric GIFs by Florian de Looij

Designer Florian de Looij’s  playful GIFs’ geometrical nature lends itself to designing an interesting GIF. By transforming, regenerating, slicing and altering the shape of each figure into smaller singular representations of the whole, the artist creates a fun setting. Deviating from a cold standard design, where mainly the colors black, white and silver are used Florian de Looij implements a vibrant scheme to rejuvenate the typical geometric GIF.

Me: No this snake is not poisonous at all.

*one of them picks up the snake which bites them. They begin to spasm and foam at the mouth*

*Brewing espresso in the International Space Station, and then sipping it out of exotic, patented, capillary-flow coffee-cups.  Note the suction cup on the base of the cup.

*In the final pictures, Argotec and Lavazza designers in Italy celebrate the first successful function of their coffee machine up in orbit.

though usually hidden to the human eye, naturally occurring marine biofluorescence can be seen under certain wavelengths of light (like ultraviolet), which causes the cells of the organisms seen here to absorb the light — and some of the photon’s energy — and then emit back a now less energetic light that consequently has a longer wavelength and thus a different colour. (biofluorescence is not to be confused with bioluminescence)