Noctiluca scintillans (above) is a bioluminescent marine dinoflagellate.
.jpg)
Noctiluca scintillans produces beautiful displays of bioluminescence round the world. Above and below, two examples of these “sea sparkles”. Lovely!
Here is a beautifully illustrated book to look out for: Spineless: Portraits of Marine Invertebrates, the Backbone of Life, by Susan Middleton.
I have no review, but here are some of the lovely images from the book. Wired and the Smithsonian Magazine have more. It looks fantastic!
A recent post in Wired highlights “14 world-changing data visualizations from the last 4 centuries.” Definitely worth a look!
The NASA map of ocean currents above is on the list, as are the classic epidemiological visualisations below, by Florence Nightingale and John Snow (the NASA map is also available as a video).
Having posted one XKCD cartoon already, here is an old favourite of mine:
There’s freaky stuff down there (see below). Oh, and be sure to to zoom in to the cartoon above and spot (among other things) the emperor penguin.
Scientific Gems 