Olive shells make amazing tunnels under the sand, emerging to show their brilliant glossy patterns. original photo by dmdart Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		Why do you hear the ocean when you put a seashell up to your ear? First things first: no matter how much it may sound like the rolling waves, it's not actually the ocean you're hearing in a shell. What exactly is it that you're hearing? In a word, noise; the ambient noise that's being produced all around and inside you, which you normally don't hear or pay attention to because it's too quiet. To amplify this noise so you can hear it clearly, you need a resonator, a Helmholtz resonator, where sound is produced by air vibrating in a cavity with one opening. The seashell you're listening to has many hard, curved surfaces great for reflecting sound. The ambient noise, the air moving past and within the shell, the blood flowing through your head, the conversation going on in the next room is resonating inside the cavity of the shell, being amplified and becoming clear enough for us to notice. Different sizes and shapes of shells sound different because different resonant chambers will amplify different frequencies. The fact that all shells sound just a little bit like the ocean is purely coincidental. Holding any sort of Helmholtz resonator to your ear will produce a similar effect, whether that object is associated with the ocean or not. Put an empty glass over your ear or even cup your hand over it, and the sound you hear will be just about the same. ~excerpt from: http://mentalfloss.com/article/22573/why-do-shells-sound-ocean original photo by dmdart Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		One of the world's worst invasive species just showed up in Florida The New Guinea flatworm is kind of a pest. In fact, it's considered one of the world's most invasive species. When it shows up uninvited to a region where it lacks natural predators, it makes itself at home - at the cost of native species forced to compete with it. And now, the flatworm has made its way to mainland Florida, putting the whole country at risk of an invasion. Platydemus manokwari isn't dangerous to humans. Not directly, anyway. But it also isn't pretty: The very flat worm grows to about two inches long, and has a murky olive back and a pale belly - a belly with a mouth in the middle of it. So it basically looks like a sneeze with eyes. But while the New Guinea flatworm poses no danger to you, it could harm the ecosystem: The flatworm is known to feast on local snails wherever it lands, even climbing up trees to get to them. When the species showed up in France in 2014, researchers argued that consequences could be dire if the species wasn't eradicated immediately. The species is currently contained to a single hothouse, but hasn't been eradicated. Earthworms are important in supporting agriculture, and snails are a major source of food for many animals higher up the food chain. Unless Florida's birds develop a taste for flatworm (which is unlikely, because it reportedly has a taste too astringent to tempt even chickens) we might be in trouble. ~excerpt from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/06/23/uh-oh-one-of-the-worlds-worst-invasive-species-just-showed-up-in-the-united-states/ Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		An Abandoned Chinese Village Is Now Overgrown With Ivy Just 50 years ago, the Houtou Wan Village - one of the 394 islands known as the Shengsi Islands in China's Yangtze River - was a thriving fishing town. But after the adjacent bay could no longer accommodate the increasing number of vessels, the village was gradually abandoned over the past half a century as residents moved elsewhere. For a few decades now, almost no one has lived in Houtou Wan, leaving nature to take over. The result is a verdant relic that looks more like a secret garden than an empty ghost town. Ivy covers nearly every inch of what were once homes and businesses, creating a lush scene of dense foliage. ~ excerpt from: http://mentalfloss.com/article/65119/abandoned-chinese-village-now-gorgeously-overgrown-ivy Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		A lone gull seeming to contemplate its reflection in the Gulf waters. original photo by dmdart Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		Summer Solstice This year it's June 21. The summer solstice always occurs between June 20 and June 22, but because the calendar doesn't exactly reflect the earth's rotation, the precise time shifts slightly each year. This year, the sun will reach its greatest height in the sky for the Northern Hemisphere on June 21 at 12:38 P.M. The sun will be directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer. While the entire Northern Hemisphere will see its longest day of the year on the summer solstice, the sun is only directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer (23 degrees 27 minutes north latitude). The name comes from the fact that the sun appears to stand still. The term "solstice" is derived from the Latin words sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because the sun's relative position in the sky at noon does not appear to change much during the solstice and its surrounding days. The rest of the year, the Earth's tilt on its axis - roughly 23.5 degrees - causes the sun's path in the sky to rise and fall from one day to the next. The hot weather follows the sun by a few weeks. You may wonder why, if the solstice is the longest day of the year - and thus gets the most sunlight - the temperature usually doesn't reach its annual peak until a month or two later. It's because water, which makes up most of the Earth's surface, has a high specific heat, meaning it takes a while to both heat up and cool down. Because of this, the Earth's temperature takes about six weeks to catch up to the sun. ~excerpt from: http://mentalfloss.com/us/go/64980 original mosaic and photo by dmdart Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		Remains This is all that remains of a once busy island establishment. Time and storms have washed away the structures and only these small portions of pilings remain to gather barnacles in the clear summer waters. original photo by dmdart Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		Sea Grass Dew shines on sea grass on the beach in early morning. original photo by dmdart Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		Coldest Stable Molecules in the World Scientists have managed to create the coldest stable molecules in the world. They've cooled molecules in a gas of sodium potassium (NaK) to a temperature of 500 nanokelvins, which is just a hair above absolute zero and over a million times colder than interstellar space. While molecules are normally full of energy, vibrating and rotating through space, the new ultracold molecules have effectively been stilled. In fact, they've been cooled to average speeds of centimeters per second and prepared in their absolutely lowest vibrational and rotational states. "We are very close to the temperature at which quantum mechanics play a big role in the motion of molecules," said Martin Zwierlein, one of the researchers, in a news release. "So these molecules would no longer run around like billiard balls, but move as quantum mechanical matter waves. And with ultracold molecules, you can get a huge variety of different states of matter, like superfluid crystals, which are crystalline, yet feel no friction, which is totally bizarre. This has not been observed so far, but predicted. We might not be far from seeing these effects, so we're all excited." Each molecule is composed of individual atoms that are bonded together to form a molecular structure, such as the sodium potassium molecules used in this study. The scientists used lasers and evaporative cooling to cool clouds of individual sodium and potassium atoms to near absolute zero. They then essentially glued the atoms together to form ultracold molecules, applying a magnetic field to prompt the bonding. In order to strengthen the bond and make each molecule more stable, the researchers exposed the NaK molecules to a pair of lasers, the large frequency difference of which matched the energy difference between the molecules initial state and its lowest vibrational state. In the end, the researchers created ultracold molecules that could pave the way to seeing exotic states of matter. To achieve this, though, the molecules will have to be cooled further to all but freeze in place. ~ excerpt and image from: http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/26751/20150616/coldest-molecules-earth-created-mit-scientists-colder-interestellar-space.htm Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		Who Am I? My head knocks against the stars. My feet are on the hilltops. My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life. Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny. I have been to hell and back many times. I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God. I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible. I know the passionate seizure of beauty And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading "Keep Off." My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe. ~ Carl Sandburg original photo by dmdart Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		Sanibel Island Canal The water in the canal is ever-changing with the tides, the birds, dolphin, manatees, floating coconuts, leaves and sometimes boats. This image, that floated by one day, reminded me of an impressionist painting, muted, soft and quiet. original photo by dmdart Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		Dazzling bright sunrays Falling on water surface Sparkle like diamonds. ~ by Nandita Das original photo by dmdart Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		Virgin births Reported in Endangered Wild Sawfish First documented case of parthenogenesis in a wild vertebrate Scientists have documented in Florida a series of "virgin births," reproduction without mating, in a critically endangered sawfish species pushed to the brink of extinction by over-fishing and habitat destruction. The scientists said on Monday it marks the first time the phenomenon called parthenogenesis has been seen in a vertebrate in the wild. Some females may be resorting to asexual reproduction because smalltooth sawfish numbers are so low mating opportunities may not exist, they said. In parthenogenesis, a female's egg cell can develop into a baby without being fertilized by a male's sperm cell. In making an egg cell, a precursor cell divides into four cells. The one that eventually becomes the egg cell retains key cellular structures and the gel-like cytoplasm. The other three hold extra genetic material. Sawfish, a type of ray, have a flattened shark-shaped body and a long, flat snout with pairs of teeth on the side used to find, stun and kill prey. They grow up to 18 feet long. ~excerpt from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/virgin-births-reported-in-endangered-wild-sawfish-1.3095906 Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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		Sanibel Sunset Sky original photo by dmdart Send this link to anyone you think would be interested in reading this entry.

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