14-billion-years-later:

NASA Makes Pens to Work in Space; Soviets Take Pencils.

I’ve seen this thing going around for years about NASA astronauts inventing a pen to work in space while the Russians simply took pencils. THIS IS FALSE. Both the Americans and Soviets initially used pencils. However there is an element of truth to this story in that there is a pen specifically manufactured for use in space called the Fisher Space Pen (pictured) that works using pressurized ink cartridges. These pens are used to this day (By both the Russians and Americans)  due to the hazards posed by pencils such as broken lead injuring people in zero gravity or as a fire hazard (seriously), but no development cost was paid by NASA or requested by Fisher.

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14-billion-years-later:

Electrons in a Magnetic Field

Charged particles in magnetic fields have a force that acts perpendicular to its motion, thus resulting in circular motion of the charge. This photo shows this in action. The purple lines show the trajectory of electrons within an applied magnetic field. The purple colour is generated by the excitation of gas within the bulb, giving rise to an ethereal, glowing hoop.

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14-billion-years-later:

It’s a Shark Eat Shark World

Need another reason to be terrified of the ocean/become a marine biologist (depending on how brave you are)? Well here we go. Pictured is a remarkable scene in which a bamboo shark appears to have its head stuck inside some kind of rock. Except that’s no rock, but instead a well camouflaged wobbegong, a type of shark. The picture was taken on the fringe of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the name of the shark also comes from the Aboriginal word for “shaggy beard”.

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