Saturday, September 30, 2017
Valentini's sharpnose puffer(Canthigaster valentini) - BIODIVERSITY
Valentin’s sharpnose puffer is a demersal marine fish belonging to the family Tetraodontidae.The Saddled puffer is a small sized fish which grows up to 11 cm. It is widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian Ocean, Red Sea included, and until the oceanic islands of the Pacific Ocean.
It inhabits rocky and coral reefs, lagoons and external reef until 55 m. Canthigaster valentini has a diurnal activity. Canthigaster valentini is omnivorous, it feeds on filamentous green and red algae, tunicates, and on smaller amounts of corals, bryozoans, polychaetes, echinoderms, mollusks, and brown and coralline red algae. Valentinni’s sharpnose puffer is highly poisonous to eat.
Info:http://www.freshmarine.com/saddle-valentini-puffer.html
http://www.pageconcept.org/nonpercif/ballons/canthigaster.htm
Photo credit Jenny (JennyHuang)https://www.flickr.com/photos/diverslog/142674543
Friday, September 29, 2017
Panoramic Eclipse Composite with Star Trails - UNIVERSE
What was happening in the sky during last week's total solar eclipse? This featured little-planet, all-sky, double time-lapse, digitally-fused composite captured celestial action during both night and day from a single location. In this 360x180 panorama, north and south are at the image bottom and top, while east and west are at the left and right edges, respectively.
During four hours the night before the eclipse, star trails were captured circling the north celestial pole (bottom) as the Earth spun. During the day of the total eclipse, the Sun was captured every fifteen minutes from sunrise to sunset (top), sometimes in partial eclipse. All of these images were then digitally merged onto a single image taken exactly during the total solar eclipse.
Then, the Sun's bright corona could be seen flaring around the dark new Moon (upper left), while Venus simultaneously became easily visible (top). The tree in the middle, below the camera, is a Douglas fir. The images were taken with care and planning at Magone Lake in Oregon, USA.
Image & info via APODhttps://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Stephane Vetter (Nuits sacrees, TWAN) http://nuitsacrees.fr/
http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/index.asp
http://twanight.org/newTWAN/photographers_about.asp?photographer=Stephane%20Vetter
Thursday, September 28, 2017
North North Temperate Zone Little Red Spot - UNIVERSE
On July 11, the Juno spacecraft once again swung near the turbulent Jovian cloud tops. On its seventh orbital closest approach this perijove passage brought Juno within 3,500 kilometers of the Solar System's largest planetary atmosphere. Near perijove the rotating JunoCam was able to record this stunning, clear view of one of Jupiter's signature vortices.
About 8,000 kilometers in diameter, the anticyclonic storm system was spotted in Jupiter's North North Temperate Zone in the 1990s. That makes it about half the size of an older and better known Jovian anticyclone, the Great Red Spot, but only a little smaller than planet Earth. At times taking on reddish hues, the enormous storm system is fondly known as a North North Temperate Zone Little Red Spot.
Image & info via APODhttps://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, MSSS;
Processing: Gerald Eichstadt, Damian Peach
When love hurts, a placebo can help - NEUROSCIENCE
Feeling heartbroken from a recent breakup? Just believing you’re doing something to help yourself get over your ex can influence brain regions associated with emotional regulation and lessen the perception of pain.
That’s the takeaway from a new CU Boulder study that measured the neurological and behavioral impacts the placebo effect had on a group of recently broken-hearted volunteers.
“Breaking up with a partner is one of the most emotionally negative experiences a person can have, and it can be an important trigger for developing psychological problems,” said first author and postdoctoral research associate Leonie Koban, noting that such social pain is associated with a 20-fold higher risk of developing depression in the coming year. “In our study, we found a placebo can have quite strong effects on reducing the intensity of social pain.”
For decades, research has shown that placebos – sham treatments with no active ingredients – can measurably ease pain, Parkinson’s disease and other physical ailments.
The new study, published in March in the Journal of Neuroscience, is the first to measure placebos’ impact on emotional pain from romantic rejection.
Source & further reading:http://www.colorado.edu/today/2017/04/24/when-love-hurts-placebo-can-help
Journal article:http://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2017/03/06/JNEUROSCI.2658-16.2017
Source: Corina Marinescu
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