Sebastian Giacobino
~ Autumn Leaves, by Franklin Booth (1874-1948)
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Soap films have the remarkable property of self-healing. A water drop, like the one shown above, can pass through a bubble (repeatedly!) without popping it. This happens thanks to surfactants and the Marangoni effect. Surfactants are molecules that lower the surface tension of a liquid and congregate along the outermost layer of a soap film. When water breaks through the soap film, its lack of surfactants causes a higher surface tension locally. This triggers the Marangoni effect, in which flow moves from areas of low surface tension toward ones of high surface tension. That carries surfactants to the region where the drop broke through and helps stabilize and heal the soap film. Incidentally, the same process lets you stick your finger into a bubble without popping it as long as your hand is wet! (Image credit: G. Mitchell and P. Taylor, source)
New track! Oh, jeez!
(Quarktar)
closely related to sharks but with long, flat bodies and wing-like pectoral fins, mobula rays are ideally suited to swooping through the water - here off the gulf of california - yet seem equally at home in the air, so much so that they have earned the name “flying rays”. mobula rays can reach heights of more than two metres, remaining airborne for several seconds.
mobula rays are quite elusive and difficult to study, so biologists are not quite sure why they jump out of the water. theories vary from a means of communication, to a mating ritual (though both males and females jump), or as a way to shed themselves of parasites. they could also be jumping as a way of better corralling their pray, as seen with them swimming in a circular formation.
what is known about mobula rays is that they reach sexual maturity late and their investment in their offspring is more akin to mammals than other fishes, usually producing just a single pup after long pregnancies, all of which makes them extremely vulnerable to commercial fishing, especially as a species that likes to come together in large groups.
reblog for majestic flap-flaps
The full rotation of the Moon as seen by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
*Boy, that tidal-locking thing sure caused all kinds of hell on the Earth-facing side
beforama