In late summer the area between Kluane Lake and Haines Junction, Yukon, commonly produces stacked lenticular clouds. Lenticular clouds, technically known as altocumulus standing lenticularis, are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes, normally aligned at right-angles to the wind direction.
Photo credit: David Cartier
Frost Flowers are delicate, cotton-candy-like structures that need the perfect conditions to form. They occur when the temperature is right around freezing, and commonly appear on rotten, waterlogged plants. It has to freeze very gently because the water contained in the vessels and tubes of woody plants needs to freeze slowly, from the top to the bottom. If temperatures get too cold, the plant will freeze too quickly. As water is wicked up, the ice gets pushed out the top by forces not totally understood. The result is extruded sheets or ribbons of ice that look like frozen blooms attached to the vegetation.
Photo credit: Katie Solari
Tattooed human skin, part of a medical oddity collection held at The Medical Pathology Museum of Tokyo University in Japan. Dr. Masaichi Fukushi was a pathologist, interested in the art of Japanese tattooing. Fukushi would perform autopsies on donated cadavers and remove just the skin. He created methods of treatment to preserve the skin and kept them stretched in a glass frame, essentially like a leather. The Medical Pathology Museum at Tokyo University has 105 in its collection, many with full body suits.
C-17 Globemaster leaving behind a “smoke angel” after releasing flares over the Atlantic Ocean.
Urodid moth cocoon. According to entomologist and Amazon explorer Phil Torres, “It has a really beautiful woven lattice structure that hangs about a foot below a leaf on a thin silk string. This is an unusual structure because the pupa, resting inside the cocoon, seems fairly exposed to the elements. The hanging likely helps to prevent predation from ants, and the bright orange color may serve as an aposematic signal to predators to prevent it from getting eaten. The tube part at the bottom is the ‘escape hatch’ from which it eventually will exit as an adult moth. There is not a lot of research that has been done on the evolutionary origin structure - this is one of the many mysteries of the Amazon you can come across.”
Photo credit: Jeff Cremer
A transplant patient has been pictured holding her own heart in her hands after she survived cancer and organ failure.According to Kelsey’s profile, doctors allowed Penny to take a photograph with her dead heart before it was cremated.
Artist Cecilia Levy uses recycled book pages and glue to make a series of pretty teacups.
