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This geothermal geyser is somewhere near Gerlach, Nevada. The colors are due to different mineral deposits as well as algae growing on it. Read about how this strange formation came about at Kuriositas. Link
Image: Dorian Raymer, UCSD
Two physicists from University of California, San Diego unraveled the mystery behind how knots form in tangled telephone cords and electronic cables:
Smith and UCSD colleague Dorian Raymer ran a series of homespun experiments in which they dropped a string into a box and tumbled it for 10 seconds (one revolution per second). They repeated the string-dropping more than 3,000 times varying the length and stiffness of the string, box size and tumbling speed.
Digital photos and video of the tumbling strings revealed: Strings shorter than 1.5 feet (.46 meters) didn’t form knots; the likelihood of knotting sharply increased as string length went from 1.5 feet to 5 feet (.46 meters to 1.5 meters); and beyond this length, knotting probability leveled off.
What a knotty problem! Link – Thanks JP!
