When a magnitude 6.8 earthquake shook Olympia, Wash., in 2001, shopowner Jason Ward discovered that a sand-tracing pendulum had recorded the vibrations in the image above.

Seismologists say that the “flower” at the center reflects the higher-frequency waves that arrived first; the outer, larger-amplitude oscillations record the lower-frequency waves that arrived later.

“You never think about an earthquake as being artistic — it’s violent and destructive,” Norman MacLeod, president of Gaelic Wolf Consulting in Port Townsend, told ABC News. “But in the middle of all that chaos, this fine, delicate artwork was created.”

Yale researchers have discovered a type of mushroom that can eat plastic. During an expedition to the jungles of Ecuador, Professor Scott Strobel and his team of researchers have found a new fungus that eats polyurethane (plastic). The fungi, called “Pestalotiopsis microspore”, is able to survive on eating plastic alone—while without the need for air or light. Students Jonathan Russell and Pria Anand have written in the journal ‘Applied and Environmental Microbiology’, that the enzyme the fungus uses to decompose plastic has been isolated. Scientists hope to use the extracted chemical to solve the plastic trash and help bioremediation projects. If successful, this could change the way we get rid of trash. (via)

animals-animals-animals:

Green Cat Snake (Boiga cyanea) (by berniedup)

Heterochaeta, world’s largest mantis (by Igor Siwanowicz)

Sunset from the ISS

Sunset photographed by an Expedition 30 crew member from the International Space Station.

ice by rrrtem