EXPLAINED: Interesting amusing facts biologistmichael | Rare Historical Photos

Shadow art. This was shared by Mike_Atmosphere_1155 on Reddit.

This was created by artist Daniel Kukla as part of a series of photographs that make it look like there is a painting on a canvas, but really it is a mirror, reflecting the scene behind them. I thought you would enjoy.

Captured by photographer Peter G Arnold, this amazing photograph was taken by placing a GoPro camera near a burrowing owl nest in Wyoming and allowing it to capture thousands of images automatically over time. After going through thousands of photographs for years, Arnold discovered this perfectly timed frame showing the curious burrowing owls staring directly into the camera. His work can mainly be found on FB.

At first glance, this image looks like a pizza bagel or some kind of baked snack covered with cheese and pepperoni. However, it's actually a frog, specifically a species known as a Pacman frog. These frogs have very round bodies and can come in unusual color patterns. In this case, its skin has red and cream markings that resemble melted cheese and pepperoni slices, creating the illusion of a miniature pizza.

Pareidolia. Lāčupīte (Lāčupe) river mouth emptying into the Gulf of Riga.

Thought you would enjoy this photograph taken around 12 years ago beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, by curlgirl1 on Reddit.

Chrysomallon squamiferum, a deep-sea species found near hydrothermal vents in the Indian Ocean, where it survives in extreme conditions by forming a unique partnership with symbiotic bacteria that provide it with nutrients. What makes it truly remarkable is that it is the only known animal to incorporate iron into both its shell and its scale-like plates, creating a natural form of armor that helps protect it from predators and the harsh environment around it. Its shell is built in layered structures with an outer coating of iron sulfide, while its underside is covered in overlapping mineralized scales that give it a striking armored appearance. Image by Chong Chen.

Wholesome tardigrade moment.

Confusing perspective. What’s going on? Probably still knocked something over before returning to the void.

250 IQ setup. Removing any individual lock will let you open the gate.

In the shape of a human. Photographed by Pio Andrea Peri, Centuripe is a historic hilltop town in eastern Sicily, Italy, set high in the mountains between Catania and Enna and known for its striking starfish-like shape that spreads across narrow ridges. With roots going back to ancient Greek and Roman times, it was once an important settlement and still preserves archaeological remains, including pottery and ruins. From above, its unique layout makes it one of the most visually unusual towns in the world, while on the ground, it offers sweeping panoramic views of Mount Etna and the surrounding valleys.

Unedited photograph. Confusing perspective. What's going on? No cheating.

Confusing perspective.

Confusing perspective.

This composite photograph shows Korolev crater on Mars, a massive impact crater nearly 51 miles (82 km) across that remains permanently filled with water ice year-round. The image was assembled from multiple photographs captured by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft during an orbit of Mars in April 2018 using its High Resolution Stereo Camera. Because the crater is so deep, cold air sinks into it and traps the ice beneath, preventing it from fully melting even during Martian summers. Image by Björn Schreiner.

Liminal.

The concrete tells a story.

Najin and her daughter Fatu, who are protected at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, are the only two remaining individuals alive. Once found across parts of Central Africa, the northern white rhino is actually a subspecies that was pushed to the edge of extinction by decades of poaching and habitat loss. In 2018, the last male northern white rhino, Sudan, passed away, leaving no natural way for the subspecies to reproduce. Scientists are now working on advanced reproductive techniques to try to save them, including IVF procedures using preserved northern white rhino sperm and eggs collected from the two surviving females. Researchers have already created viable embryos and hope to implant them into surrogate southern white rhinos in an effort to one day bring the northern white rhinoceros back from functional extinction.

Do you see it? If this is your first time viewing a stereogram, start with your phone very close to your face, then slowly pull it back until a three-dimensional world appears. Imagine you are looking through your phone, instead of at your phone.

What’s going on here?

Pareidolia. Last month, Reddit user pinoy47 smashed their finger, accidentally creating a masterpiece. It became one of the most upvoted pareidolia posts of all time. Pareidolia is when the brain sees familiar shapes or patterns, like faces or objects, in random or unrelated things.

Polar bears are the largest land carnivores on Earth. Adult male polar bears typically weigh between 900 and 1,600 pounds and can reach lengths of up to 8 to 10 feet. In comparison, American black bears usually weigh between 200 and 600 pounds and are about 5 to 7 feet long. This means a large polar bear can be two to three times heavier than a typical black bear. Polar bears also have much larger paws and thicker fat layers to survive Arctic conditions, giving them a much bulkier appearance overall.

This 17th-century plague doctor mask, often called a pesthaube, was part of a protective outfit worn by physicians during outbreaks of the plague, with the long beak filled with herbs or vinegar-soaked materials believed to filter disease from “bad air.” The example shown is held in the collection of Deutsches Historisches Museum and is commonly associated with Germany, though its exact place of manufacture and use is not definitively documented, with the attribution based on its preservation in a German museum, the use of German terminology, and stylistic classification within European plague doctor attire.

Taken at Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia, on September 6, 2013.

Who knows why? Gillian Baresich took this photograph of their cat and noticed that the reflection in the mirror had the shadow but the IRL scene did not.

95% fatality rate. This organism infects people when warm freshwater is forced high up the nose while swimming or diving, allowing it to travel along the olfactory nerve into the brain, where it feeds on and destroys brain tissue. Despite its terrifying reputation, infections are actually very rare considering how many millions of people swim in freshwater every year. The organism is known as Naegleria fowleri, often called the “brain-eating amoeba.” Photo by Francine Marciano Cabral.

Accidental art. This is a photograph, not a painting.

Ticks are deeply emotional creatures.

Accidental art. This photograph was taken around seven years ago by Evan Roden when his printer suddenly malfunctioned and stopped working after printing this final random image.

A walking optical illusion. These shoes were designed by Kobi Levi , which at first look impossible until you realize what's going on. The photos are not edited at all.

Confusing perspective.

This image is not AI, nor is it Photoshopped. This is left-handed Estonian javelin thrower Magnus Kirt competing in the 2022 Estonian Athletics Championships. He appears to have a unique style that includes throwing a javelin further by running it through the back of his head as he launches. Shades of Phineas Gage! But Kirt was not hurt; in fact he is fine, and has since retired from the sport with the national record, and has happily became a father. This photograph is an optical illusion.

Resurrection of the grape. Klaatu42 on Reddit accidentally left this raisin in a bowl, and four days later, they had a grape.

Confusing perspective. What's going on? No cheating.

This enormous man-made salt mountain in Germany is called Monte Kali. It was created from decades of potash mining, where minerals used in fertilizer production are extracted and the remaining salt is added to the growing mound. The mountain now rises more than 250 meters above the surrounding landscape and contains over 200 million tonnes of salt. Based on industrial salt prices, the salt inside could theoretically be worth billions of dollars.

Plebeia sp. twisted wax tunnels and clustered resin structures form a nest that looks almost alien. Unlike traditional honey bees, many stingless bee species build intricate spiral chambers, protective resin walls, and narrow entrance tubes using wax mixed with plant resins, creating some of the most unusual hive structures found in nature.

He flew. Image by Sha Lu.

A tiny praying mantis, trapped in sticky tree resin around 30 million years ago, has been preserved in amber with incredible detail. When resin flows from trees, it can quickly engulf small organisms and seal them off from air, preventing decay. Over millions of years, that resin hardens into amber, effectively freezing a moment in time. The mantis can still be seen down to its delicate limbs and posture, as if it were caught mid-movement during the Oligocene epoch. Scientists estimate its age by dating the surrounding geological layers where the amber was found and by comparing it to other fossils from the same formation, sometimes using radiometric dating of nearby volcanic material to narrow it down. The specimen was sold through Heritage Auctions in 2016 for about $6,000, and later resurfaced at auction, drawing significantly higher bids as interest in rare amber fossils has grown.

Sodium vapor streetlights. An era when much of America’s cities were lit by high-pressure sodium lighting, giving urban areas their iconic orange glow. Beginning in the late 2000s and accelerating through the 2010s, cities across the country gradually replaced many of these lights with white LED systems to reduce energy costs and maintenance.

If this is your first time viewing stereoscopic art, start with your phone very close to your face, then slowly pull it back until the two images become three images, with the center one being three-dimensional.

Underwater data centers are rapidly moving from science fiction into reality as countries race to build the next generation of AI infrastructure. China has already deployed commercial underwater server modules near Hainan Island and is developing larger wind-powered underwater facilities near Shanghai, with some projects designed to eventually scale into massive multi-hundred-megawatt systems. These sealed capsules sit on the ocean floor and use surrounding seawater as a natural cooling system, dramatically reducing the enormous electricity and freshwater demands required to cool traditional AI data centers. Microsoft also experimented with underwater computing through Project Natick off the coast of Scotland, successfully operating hundreds of servers underwater for years before ending the project commercially. The appeal is obvious: AI systems require massive amounts of computing power, and cooling those machines has become one of the biggest technological and environmental challenges facing the industry. Underwater systems can reduce cooling energy consumption, save land space, operate quietly, and potentially run alongside offshore renewable energy sources like wind farms. Some researchers and companies believe future underwater server pods could eventually be deployed near coastal cities around the world to improve internet speeds and reduce strain on power grids. But there are major downsides as well. Repairing or upgrading submerged hardware is difficult and expensive, saltwater corrosion remains a constant engineering challenge, and scientists are still studying the long-term environmental effects of releasing heat into marine ecosystems. Critics also question whether underwater facilities will ever become cheaper or more practical than increasingly advanced land-based AI data centers. Even so, as AI demand continues to explode globally, governments and technology companies are increasingly experimenting with more extreme solutions to power the future of computing. Photos: Shanghai Hailanyun Technology.

Two chairs, two screens. Franklin, TN, USA.