Here’s something you don’t see everyday, a very up-close look at a Giant Galapagos Tortoise. YouTube’s Arlo Midgett set up his camera and tripod and lucked out when the tortoise took notice and decided to investigate. I recommend watching in HD fullscreen.
Videos
This is cool. And perfect for springtime. Part of the Flightartists Project, this video shows a honeybee as it starts its flight after collecting nectar, filmed with a high speed camera at 3000 frames per second.
In the three years since it first provided images of the sun in the spring of 2010, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has had virtually unbroken coverage of the sun’s rise toward solar maximum, the peak of solar activity in its regular 11-year cycle. This video shows those three years of the sun at a pace of two images per day. Included are two eclipses by the moon, the largest flare of our current cycle, the Comet Lovejoy and the transit of Venus.
Here’s another way cool video of astronaut Chris Hadfield doing an everyday thing in zero gravity aboard the International Space Station (ISS). This time he’s wringing out a wet washcloth.
In January, 2014, Earth will pass through a stream of fine-grained debris from Comet ISON. Scientists say the resulting shower could have some interesting properties.
What is cute – scientifically? This video by YouTube user Vsauce answers this question wonderfully.
In short: tears don’t fall. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, commander of the International Space Station, demonstrates what happens if you shed a tear in zero gravity. And if you enjoyed that, click in to see how to brush your teeth in space!
This short video, shot by Neels CASTILLON shows clouds of Starlings flocking over Marseille, France, at dusk. A flock of starlings is known as a “chattering,” “clattering,” “cloud,” “congregation,” or “murmuration.” Whatever the case, it’s breathtaking.
Earlier today (April 10, 2013), President Obama and NASA released details of the FY 2014 budget, which includes $100 million for what NASA calls the Asteroid Retrieval and Utilization Mission. The video below is definitely worth watching! It’ll show you, without words, what NASA intends. Then click inside for more details.
The ability to keep a beat is an innate ability for humans – at least for most of us. But it’s rare to find this ability in other animals. Previously, only birds with talents for vocal mimicry were thought to possess rhythmic ability in the animal kingdom. Now Ronan, a sea lion at the University of California Santa Cruz’s Long Marine Laboratory is the first non-human mammal to show that she can move to the rhythms of a song, in this case the funky beats of Earth, Wind & Fire’s Boogie Wonderland.
