PHOTO OF THE DAY: Manukura, the only known white kiwi, improving after surgery

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Buck

Image via Mike Heydon/Jet Productions NZ Limited via Getty

Staff at Pukaha Mount Bruce wildlife centre on New Zealand’s North Island spotted Manukura’s trouble when she started refusing to eat and moving strangely.

X-rays taken at Wellington Zoo revealed the problem. While kiwis often swallow small stones to help break down hard-to-digest foods, Manukua had swallowed stones too large to pass safely through her digestive tract.

A urologist was called in to blast the stones apart using lasers, a treatment similar to that used on patients with kidney stones. To see it it action, watch the video footage of the unusual surgery.

Via io9, BBC, and the New Scientist

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Remains of a river delta discovered on Mars

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Buck

More via the European Space Agency:

Eberswalde crater contains a rare case of a martian delta. Channels which fed the lake in the crater are very well preserved. The delta deposits and channels together provide a clear indication of liquid surface water during the early history of Mars.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Fireflies & star trails

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Buck

Here’s another excellent photo via APOD, and it looks great as computer wallpaper!

More on this image via APOD:

Explanation: Fix your digital camera to a tripod, start a long series of exposures, and you too can record star trails. The concentric arcs traced by the stars as planet Earth rotates on its axis often produce dreamlike scenes in otherwise familiar situations. Fall asleep, though, and the results might surprise you. Setting up on a summer night, photographer Mike Rosinski began his exposures, initially planning to capture about 45-55 minutes worth of star trails from his yard in Hartland, Michigan, USA. But he dozed, only to awaken some 3 hours later to find his camera had continued to run until the battery died. Composing the resulting images, the graceful concentric star trails were expected, along with light from a late rising Moon glinting on windows. Still, as he slept on the warm night a blizzard of yellow streaks flooded the scene, not left by fairies but fireflies.