Brillipository

Random whatnots Photography, nature, art, music, architecture... This is my personal repository of other people's brilliance and of the magnificence of nature. Thanks for sharing!

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James Webb meets Van Gogh

1497 views on Imgur: The magic of the Internet

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My US friends, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you; for all of us, really, because what bad idea starts in the US soon spreads around the world.  I can only hope Net Neutrality survives; you can actually do something about it. So go #StopTheFCC !!!  

https://www.battleforthenet.com/

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(via Fog Waves Are The Most Beautiful Thing I Captured After 8 Years Of Experimenting)

[mindblowingscience]

How neurons in bats’ brains ensure a safe flight

As nocturnal animals, bats are perfectly adapted to a life without light. They emit echolocation sounds and use the delay between the reflected echoes to measure distance to obstacles or prey. In their brains, they have a spatial map representing different echo delays. A study carried out by researchers at Technische Universität München (TUM) has shown for the first time that this map dynamically adapts to external factors.

Closer objects appear larger

When a bat flies in too close to an object, the number of activated neurons in its brain increases. As a result, the object appears disproportionately larger on the bat’s brain map than objects at a safe distance, as if it were magnified. “The map is similar to the navigation systems used in cars in that it shows bats the terrain in which they are moving,” explains study director Dr. Uwe Firzlaff at the TUM Chair of Zoology. “The major difference, however, is that the bats’ inbuilt system warns them of an impending collision by enhancing neuronal signals for objects that are in close proximity.”

Bats constantly adapt their flight maneuvers to their surroundings to avoid collisions with buildings, trees or other animals. The ability to determine lateral distance to other objects also plays a key role here. Which is why bats process more spatial information than just echo delays. “Bats evaluate their own motion and map it against the lateral distance to objects,” elaborates the researcher.

Brain processes complex spatial information

In addition to the echo reflection time, bats process the reflection angle of echoes. They also compare the sound volume of their calls with those of the reflected sound waves and measure the wave spectrum of the echo. “Our research has led us to conclude that bats display much more spatial information on their acoustic maps than just echo reflection.”

The results show that the nerve cells interpret the bats’ rapid responses to external stimuli by enlarging the active area in the brain to display important information. “We may have just uncovered one of the fundamental mechanisms that enables vertebrates to adapt flexibly to continuously changing environments,” concludes Firzlaff.

Journal Reference:

Sophia K. Bartenstein, Nadine Gerstenberg, Dieter Vanderelst, Herbert Peremans, Uwe Firzlaff. Echo-acoustic flow dynamically modifies the cortical map of target range in bats. Nature Communications, 2014; 5 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5668

[captvinvanity]

Sunsets | Photographer | CV

[itscolossal]

Artist Stan Herd Plants a 1.2-Acre Field Inspired by Van Gogh’s 1889 Painting “Olive Trees”

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Blue Bubbles by Weihao Pan Via Flickr: Canadian Rockies, Alberta Ice bubbles formation in Abraham lake.

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Mark Cassino’s big snowflake gallery here. Mark Cassino’s blogs about snowflake photography here.

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Hanging Ice by Dan Hottenroth Via Flickr: Ice over river

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09012011_Z6O8251 by Steve Taylor Via Flickr: frozen bird bath

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Ice bubbles by kari siren

[opticallyaddicted]

The Mystical World Of Mushrooms Captured In Photos

Most people consider mushrooms to be the small, ugly cousins of the plant kingdom, but theirs is  surprisingly beautiful and wonderful world waiting to be explored. These beautiful mushrooms, captured by enthusiastic nature photographers, are a far cry from the ones you find in the woods or your local grocery store.

Most mushrooms, as we know them, are actually just the reproductive structure of the fungus they belong to – their fungal networks expand far further underground, and some fungi don’t even sprout the sort of mushrooms that we’re used to seeing. In fact, depending on your definition of “organism,” the largest living organism in the world is a fungus – there’s a honey mushroom colony in Oregon that occupies about 2,000 acres of land! ( Bored Panda )

[sosuperawesome]

Small sculptures by chercheto on Etsy

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Baby Tropical Orb Weavers - Arachtober 22 by jciv on Flickr.

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Wandering Spider - Cupiennius salei - Cayo District, Belize by Thomas Shahan on Flickr.

[flyngdream]

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Brilliant macro shots of cat’s eyes by photographer & artist  Andrew Marttila. Full gallery of macros of cat’s eyes here.