In 2011, the Postal Service celebrates the achievements of chemist Melvin Calvin, botanist Asa Gray, physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer, and biochemist Severo Ochoa.

Melvin Calvin (1911-1997) advanced our understanding of photosynthesis and conducted pioneering research on using plants as an alternative energy source. He won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1961. The stamp art includes a photograph of him taken by Yousuf Karsh. The background shows excerpts from the carbon cycle, and chemical symbols and structures he used to represent the process of photosynthesis.

Asa Gray (1810-1888), one of the nation’s first professional botanists, advanced the specialized field of plant geography and became the principal American advocate of evolutionary theory in the mid-nineteenth century. The stamp art features illustrations of plants studied by Gray and the words “Shortia galacifolia” in Gray’s handwriting.

Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972) developed a theoretical model that helped explain the structure of the atomic nucleus; for this work she became the only woman other than Marie Curie to win a Nobel Prize in physics. The stamp art combines photographs of Mayer with a chart and a diagram she used to illustrate aspects of the atomic nucleus.

Severo Ochoa (1905-1993), a biochemist, was the first scientist to synthesize ribonucleic acid (RNA) and competed in the race to decipher the genetic code. He won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1959. The stamp shows Ochoa in his laboratory in 1959, along with figures representing some of his work on protein synthesis.

heythereuniverse:

Bacillus Anthracis (Anthrax)

La Edad Mesozoica es conocida comúnmente como “la Edad de los Dinosaurios”, y la razón es que estas criaturas dominaban los ambientes terrestres.  Sin embargo, los océanos Mesozoicos también tenían su buena cantidad de criaturas, como los Ictiosaurios, poderosos nadadores con grandes mandíbulas y colas con forma de media luna que llegaban a tener tamaños que ningún delfín moderno podría llegar a tener, llegando a los 15 metros de largo.

Los Ictiosaurios aparecieron por primera vez en el Triásico, aproximadamente al mismo tiempo que los primeros dinosaurios y sobrevivieron hasta la mitad del Cretácico, hace unos 110 millones de años. El primer Ictiosaurio fue descubierto en 1811 por una niña en los acantilados alrededor de Lyme Regis, en Inglaterra.

En esta época también se encontraban los Plesiosaurios, que han sido descriptos como “serpientes unidas con cuerpos de tortugas”. Estos animales tenían cuerpos con forma de tortugas con cuatro largas aletas, colas cortas y puntiagudas y cuellos largos similares a los de las serpientes. Sus cabezas relativamente pequeñas estaban armadas con afiladísimos dientes. Aunque nada se sabe a ciencia cierta sobre sus hábitos de apareamiento, podrían haber tenido las mismas prácticas que las tortugas modernas. El Plesiosaurio más grande llegaba a tener una longitud de 14 metros, de los cuales más de la mitad pertenecían a sus cuellos.

Otros animales marinos gigantes eran los Pliosaurios, de los cuales se creía que estaban relacionados con los Plesiosaurios, pero estos tenían cuellos más cortos, y cabezas y mandíbulas más grandes. El Pliosaurio más grande era el Kronosaurus, que medía 12.8 metros de largo.

Los Ictiosaurios, Plesiosaurios y Pliosaurios estaban tan perfectamente adaptados a su ambiente que sus esqueletos casi no demuestran similitudes con otros reptiles. Su posición y relación taxonómica con los reptiles terrestres permanece incierta.

feedbackpositivo:

Falls of fire por Nikhil Shahi

“Every year for a few days in the month of February, the sun’s angle is such, that it lights up Horsetail Falls in Yosemite, as if it were on fire. It truly is an amazing experience”

rhamphotheca:

Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) diving for mussels on the bottom of the Arctic Sea.

(from: Planet Earth - BBC)

plantedcity:

The ‘2010 State of the Climate’ Report:

Indicators show a “clear and unmistakable signal” that our world continues to warm, making extreme weather events more likely

From The Washington Post:

The world’s climate is not only continuing to warm, it’s adding heat-trapping greenhouse gases even faster than in the past, researchers said Tuesday.

Indeed, the global temperature has been warmer than the 20th century average every month for more than 25 years, they said at a teleconference.

“The indicators show unequivocally that the world continues to warm,” Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, said in releasing the annual State of the Climate report for 2010.

“There is a clear and unmistakable signal from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans,” added Peter Thorne of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, North Carolina State University.

Carbon dioxide increased by 2.60 parts per million in the atmosphere in 2010, which is more than the average annual increase seen from 1980-2010, Karl added. Carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas accumulating in the air that atmospheric scientists blame for warming the climate.

The warmer conditions are consistent with events such as heat waves and extreme rainfall, Karl said at a teleconference. However, it is more difficult to make a direct connection with things like tornado outbreaks, he said.

“Any single weather event is driven by a number of factors, from local conditions to global climate patterns and trends. Climate change is one of these,” he said. “It is very likely that large-scale changes in climate, such as increased moisture in the atmosphere and warming temperatures, have influenced — and will continue to influence — many different types of extreme events, such as heavy rainfall, flooding, heat waves and droughts.

The report, being published by the American Meteorological Society, lists 2010 as tied with 2005 for the warmest year on record, according to studies by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA. A separate analysis, done in Britain, lists 2010 as second warmest.

…

For more, check out the rest of the article, the full report, its highlights and colourful press briefing slides. 

(Image credit: NOAA)

thanks :-), your tumblr is interesting too

sugaratoms:

 

The Bisti Egg Garden is an unusual, atypical and accessible rock formation located in the Bisti Wilderness Area near Farmington, New Mexico. Though other famous rock formations have achieved fame for their size and scenic beauty, the Bisti Egg Garden proves that even in geology, good things come in small packages.

The rock strata we now call the Kirtland and Fruitland Formations date from the Late Cretaceous period when the great inland sea that divided North America into western and eastern halves was slowly drying up. As such, most of the rocks formed in the area were originally mud, clay and other sediments later overlain by windblown sand.Thin seams of coal (above) add contrast to the layers of rock exposed today after millions of years of weathering and erosion. Though the “eggs” of the Bisti Egg Garden contain no coal, the combination of different types of sedimentary rock with varying degrees of hardness allows for a uniquely beautiful cameo effect as these boulders slowly erode from the outside in.