Scanning electron microscopy of the carnivorous fungus Arthrobotrys anchonia capturing a nematode.

Fungi can capture nematodes in a variety of ways but the most sophisticated and perhaps the most dramatic is called the constricting ring. An erect branch from a hypha curves round and fuses with itself to form a three-celled ring about 20-30 microns in diameter (30/1000th mm). When a nematode "swims" into a ring it triggers a response in the fungus and the three cells expand rapidly inwards with such power that they constrict the body of the nematode victim and hold it securely with no chance to escape. It takes only 1/10 th of a second for the ring cells to inflate to their maximum size.

Link | Many more amazing pictures of fungi at George Barron’s website.

Jeff Lieberman created this light bulb that lights up while being suspended in mid air!

Lightbulb uses a special bulb, inside which magnets and circuitry are hidden. Using a magnetic hall effect sensor, an electromagnet, and a [modified] PD feedback system, it floats a lightbulb stably in the air, while power is transmitted wirelessly from the base of the sculpture into the bulb. LEDs in the bulb rectify this AC power and convert it to light. The power transfer functions very similarly to how radio station tuning works and requires a well tuned matched pair of resonant windings, but allows power transmission over through the air.

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Joyce Urch, blind for 25 years, can suddenly see again after a heart attack.

Since 1979, Joyce Urch had lived in a world of shadows and near-darkness, but was astonished to find her sight restored when she came round after being resuscitated.

Doctors have been unable to explain what happened, but Mrs Urch, 74, was happy yesterday to put it down to a "miracle".

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This is LaNelle – one of Betty Chu’s many prize-winning (not to mention very cute) angora rabbits. See more of them here: Link

These images depict people who were driven from their homes in the Southwestern states by drought and economic depression and migrated to the West in search of work. Most of the images in this archive were taken in the mid to late 1930s by Dorothea Lange, one of several photographers hired by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to document migrant life. Many of the FSA photographs were used to publicize the deplorable living and working conditions of the migrants.

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