Cuban artist Yoan Capote uses all kinds of unusual materials to create beautiful art installations. For one of his latest project, Isla, he used around 500,000 fishhooks to build a photo-like seascape mural.
Throughout the years we’ve featured a lot of talented artists with the power of turning everyday objects into stunning masterpieces, and today we’re proud to add Yoan Capote to our ever-growing list. The Cuban artist is famous for the way he manages to take common household objects and create beautiful artworks, but I think his latest creation is also his most impressive one. Named Isla, the 26-foot-wide mural was assembled out of half a million intertwined fishhooks, nails and oil. Looking at it from a distance, you’d think it’s just a photo of the calm open sea, but as you draw near, the secret behind the realistic seascape is revealed. Even with the help of 30 assistants, Yoan Capote took since months to complete his fascinating fishhook mural.
Asked why he chose fishhooks as a medium for his artwork, Capote said “I decided to use fishhooks in this series because I wanted to create a tension between beauty and seduction and danger and entrapment.”
I find it fascinating how some artists can turn rigid materials into works of art that seem almost organic. Case in point, Kevin Iris, a man who creates beautiful tree sculptures exclusively from aluminum wire.
A self-proclaimed “treenut” Kevin Iris has been making incredibly detailed tree sculptures from aluminum wire for the last 23 years. His works vary in shape and size, as he’s trying to inspire different emotions with each one, but the most remarkable thing that’s common to all of them is that they are made only out of twisted wire. That means he uses no glue, coatings or any other substances. he simply takes tens of feet of aluminum wire and twists them into a variety of shapes. As you can imagine, Kevin’s artistic process is very laborious and time-consuming. For example, talking about the aluminum tree n the photo below, the artist says “I average about 26 leaves per strand so I have about 10,062 leaves up there on the top. This [22-inch wide] tree took about 450 hours or so of hands on twisting wire time over four months.” Pretty remarkable stuff…
all the years I’d stapled posters on my wall, I never gave it a second thought, let alone consider it an art form. But an artist has painstakingly created a series of beautiful murals made from nothing but staples tacked onto a wall. The pictures you’re looking at are the works of French artist Baptiste Debombourg, and a part of a collection named Aggravure. His last artwork, Aggravure III, took him 340 hours to complete and consists of over half a million staples.
The collection itself is inspired by engravers of the Renaissance period, Jan Harmensz, Cherubino Alberti and Hendrick Goltzius. It’s amazing what an artist can do with a boring, everyday, office supply like the staple. But hey, if people can make art out of packing tape, maybe staple-art is not so surprising after all.
Whether in hunting or warfare, bullets are usually used for killing, but artist David Palmer has found a way to use these instruments of destruction to create beautiful celebrity portraits.
John Lennon, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were all great men, with one tragic thing in common – they were all killed by a bullet. Now, artist David Palmer has chosen to create portraits of these icons using probably the most unusual medium – bullet shells. After collecting enough bullet casings, the artist puts them together to create a metal canvas, and using a small hand torch darkens the ends of the bullet casings, creating incredibly detailed portraits. Using such a seemingly inappropriate art medium like bullets to depict their victims, Palmer hopes viewers will “see the miracles that can arise from choosing to create rather than destroy.”
If you find bullet art interesting, you might want to check out the awe-inspiring miniature holy places made by Al Farrow, entirely out of bullets.
Using various everyday objects and back light, Azerbaijani artist Rashad Alakbarov creates mind-blowing shadow paintings.
It always amazes me what some people can achieve by using the simplest materials and their imagination. Rashad Alakbarov is definitely one of these incredible individuals; using common items like empty plastic bottles, metal pipes or simple pieces of plastic and back light, he creates amazing works of art. Either by hanging these items from the ceiling, or carefully positioning them on a table, Alakbarov manages to produce incredible shadow paintings.
Seeing as you only need some junk and a couple of lamps for the back light, it’s theoretically possible to create shadow paintings like those of Rashad Alakbarov in the comfort of your own home, but do you really have the patience to do it? I know sure don’t.
Dr. Eduard Egarter-Vigl (left) and Dr. Albert Zink (right) taking a sample from the Iceman in November 2010. Dr. Eduard Egarter-Vigl (left) and Dr. Albert Zink (right) taking a sample from the Iceman in November 2010. CREDIT: Samadelli Marco/EURAC
The 5,300-year-old ice mummy dubbed Ötzi, discovered in the Eastern Alps about 20 years ago, appears to have had the oldest known case of Lyme disease, new genetic analysis has revealed.
As part of work on the Iceman's genome — his complete genetic blueprint — scientists found genetic material from the bacterium responsible for the disease, which is spread by ticks and causes a rash and flulike symptoms and can lead to joint, heart and nervous system problems.
The new analysis also indicates the Iceman was lactose intolerant, predisposed to cardiovascular disease, and most likely had brown eyes and blood type O.
To sequence the Iceman's genome, researchers took a sample from his hip bone. In it, they looked for not only human DNA — the chemical code that makes up genes — but also for that of other organisms. While they found evidence of other microbes, the Lyme disease bacterium, called Borrelia burgdorferi, was the only one known to cause disease, said Albert Zink, a study researcher and head of the European Institute for Mummies and the Iceman at the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC) in Italy.
"Our data point to the earliest documented case of a B. burgdorferi infection in mankind. To our knowledge, no other case report about borreliosis [Lyme disease] is available for ancient or historic specimens," Zink and colleagues write in an article published on Tuesday (Feb. 28) in the journal Nature Communications.
Discovering evidence of Borrelia is an "intriguing investigative lead," said Dr. Steven Schutzer, an immunologist at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School.
Schutzer is a lead investigator on a National Institutes of Health-funded project that has sequenced at least 17 strains of the modern bacterium, and has published 13 of those so far.
The discovery of the traces of Borrelia within the sample taken from the Iceman still needs to be confirmed, he said. "Now we know what we want to look for, now that we know there is a possibility of that being here, we can do a very targeted approach that looks for Borrelia," Schutzer said.
Lyme disease is transmitted by ticks in North America and Eurasia. It was first found in the United States in Connecticut in the mid-1970s; a similar disorder had been identified in Europe earlier in the 20th century.
Schutzer said he is discussing follow-up studies with Zink.
Previous work had examined genetic material within the Iceman's mitochondria — the energy-producing centers in cells. His mitochondrial DNA,which is inherited through the maternal line, did not reveal any living relatives.
In this new project, researchers decoded the DNA found within the nuclei of the Iceman's cells, which is inherited from both parents. They found the Iceman belonged to a lineage that is now rare,but still present in some places. [Photos of Iceman Mummy]
"This means his ancestors came from Europe originally from the East and spread over most or part of Europe," Zink said. "This original population was somehow replaced by other populations, but they remained quite stable in remote areas like Sardinia and Corsica."
The analysis also indicates the Iceman was lactose intolerant. This isn't surprising, according to Zink. At the time the Iceman lived and died, people were beginning to settle down and become farmers, and the ability for adults to digest milk became an advantage.
The team also found he had a genetic predisposition for cardiovascular disease, supporting earlier scans showing the buildup of deposits within his arteries. In spite of the health problems from which the roughly 45-year-old Iceman suffered, he appears to have died a violent death. Researchers believe a flint arrowhead, shot into his left shoulder most likely killed him.
This image from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter centers on the South Pole-Aitken basin, the largest impact basin on the moon, and one of the largest impact basins in the solar system. CREDIT: NASA/Goddard
The moon, which has been pummeled by a barrage of asteroids and debris throughout its lifetime, experienced a strong uptick in the energy and speed of incoming rocks around 4 billion years ago, new research suggests.
A team of researchers from the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., tracked the history of crater formation on the moon using digital maps, and found evidence of a dramatic shift in the velocity and energy of the asteroid bombardment during a period called the "lunar cataclysm" that occurred 4 billion years ago.
The timing of this shift could coincide with disturbances in the solar system's main asteroid belt caused by changes in the movement of the outer planets, the researchers said.
Detailed maps of the lunar surface from the United States Geological Survey previously identified ancient regions on the moon to look for clues about the bombardment. The new study combined these observations with new data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to study the impact craters found on these ancient surfaces.
The scientists found a subtle shift in the size of the younger craters that points to an increase in the velocities of the asteroids that created them, compared with the most ancient basins on the moon.
Post-lunar cataclysm diagram of our solar system. CREDIT: LPI/Marchi/Bottke/Kring/Morbidelli
This change seems to have taken place after the moon's largest impact crater, the 1,550-mile-wide (2,500 kilometers) South Pole-Aitken Basin, was produced, but before the 534-mile-wide (860 km) Nectaris basin was formed, the researchers said. [Latest Photos from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter]
In fact, craters near the Nectaris basin were formed by collisions that struck twice as fast as those found on more ancient lunar terrains, the researchers said.
Within that window of time, the velocities of the incoming asteroids during the lunar cataclysm were likely ramped up by the movement of Jupiter and the other outer solar system planets, they explained.
"It is fascinating that the surface of our own moon records evidence of orbital changes in Jupiter and Saturn that took place so long ago," Yvonne Pendleton, director of NLSI, said in a statement.
In the early days of the solar system, inner planets, including the Earth and the moon, were repeatedly whacked by debris that formed the building blocks of the planets. As this material was eventually incorporated into the inner planets, the rate of these violent collisions decreased.
But, around 4 billion years ago, a second wave of impacts reportedly took place, which forms the basis of the lunar cataclysm hypothesis. These collisions, which struck at much higher velocities, could have been caused by objects in the main asteroid belt that were dislodged and thrown into the inner solar system from the reorganization of the outer planets.
"This is an exciting time for lunar research with LRO and other spacecraft providing so much new data," study lead author Simone Marchi said in a statement. "Collaborating with scientists of different disciplines allowed us to link these observational data to dynamical models to put new constraints on solar system history."
The findings of the study were published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
An artistic rendition of a nomad object wandering through the interstellar medium. The object is intentionally blurry to represent uncertainty about whether it has an atmosphere. CREDIT: Greg Stewart / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Our Milky Way galaxy may be teeming with rogue planets that ramble through space instead of being locked in orbit around a star, a new study suggests.
These "nomad planets" could be surprisingly common in our bustling galaxy, according to researchers at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), a joint institute of Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The study predicts that there may be 100,000 times more of these wandering, homeless planets than stars in the Milky Way.
If this is the case, these intriguing cosmic bodies would belong to a whole new class of alien worlds, shaking up existing theories of planet formation. These free-flying planets may also raise new and tantalizing questions in the search for life beyond Earth.
"If any of these nomad planets are big enough to have a thick atmosphere, they could have trapped enough heat for bacterial life to exist," study leader Louis Strigari said in a statement.
And while nomad planets cannot benefit from the heat given off from their parent stars, these worlds could generate heat from tectonic activity or internal radioactive decay, the researchers said.
For now, characteristics of these foreign objects are still unknown; they could be icy bodies, similar to other objects found in the outer solar system, rocky like asteroids, or gas giants similar to the most massive planets in our solar system. [Gallery: First Earth-Size Alien Planets Found]
Over the past several decades, astronomers have keenly hunted for planets outside our solar system. So far, the search has turned up more than 700 of these exoplanets. Almost all of these newfound worlds orbit stars, but last year, scientists found about a dozen planets with no discernible host star.
The researchers used a technique called gravitational microlensing to detect these homeless planets. This method examines the effects of a massive object passing in front of a star.
From Earth, the nearby object bends and magnifies the light from the distant star like a lens, making the faraway star's light appear to brighten and fade over time. The resulting "light curve" helps astronomers distinguish characteristics of the foreground object.
Based on initial estimates, approximately two free-flying planets exist for every "normal" star in our galaxy, but the results of the new study produced even more staggering findings: nomad planets may be up to 50,000 times more common than that.
"To paraphrase Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz,' if correct, this extrapolation implies that we are not in Kansas anymore, and in fact we never were in Kansas," Alan Boss, of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. "The universe is riddled with unseen planetary-mass objects that we are just now able to detect."
The KIPAC researchers made their prediction by calculating the known gravitational pull of the Milky Way, the amount of matter available in the galaxy to make such celestial objects, and how that matter might be distributed to make up objects that range from as small as Pluto to as large as Jupiter.
These measurements were challenging since astronomers are unsure where these wandering planets came from, the researchers said. Some of these rogue worlds were likely ejected from other star systems, but there is evidence that not all of them could have been formed this way, Strigari said.
The researchers are hopeful that follow-up observations using next generation telescopes, particularly of the smaller objects, will yield more detailed results. The planned space-based Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope on the ground, are both set to begin operations in the early 2020s.
If the estimated number of these nomad planets is correct, the results could lead to exciting prospects about the origin and abundance of life in our Milky Way galaxy. For instance, as these homeless planets mosey through space, collisions could break apart pieces of these rogue worlds and fling bacterial life onto other celestial bodies, the researchers said.
"Few areas of science have excited as much popular and professional interest in recent times as the prevalence of life in the universe," study co-author Roger Blandford, director of KIPAC, said in a statement. "What is wonderful is that we can now start to address this question quantitatively by seeking more of these erstwhile planets and asteroids wandering through interstellar space, and then speculate about hitchhiking bugs."
Near the lower left corner of this view is the three-petal lander platform that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit drove off in January 2004. The lander is still bright, but with a reddish color, probably due to accumulation of Martian dust. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded this view on Jan. 29, 2012, providing the first image from orbit to show Spirit's lander platform in color.
A NASA probe orbiting Mars has captured new photos of two dead spacecraft frozen in place at their Red Planet graves.
The photos were taken by NASA's powerful Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which has been circling the planet since 2006.
The spacecraft first spied NASA's dead Phoenix Mars Lander in the Martian arctic on Jan. 26 in a color photo that reveals the lander and its frigid surroundings as they appeared following Phoenix's second winter on the planet. The Phoenix spacecraft landed successfully on Mars in 2008.
In a separate photo, MRO also spotted the three-petal landing platform that delivered NASA's Mars rover Spirit to the surface of the Red Planet in January 2004. The platform used parachutes and airbags to bounce to a stop on Gusev crater so the Spirit rover could begin its mission.
Spirit drove off the lander platform in January 2004 and spent most of its six-year working life in a range of hills roughly two miles (3.2 kilometers) to the east, NASA officials said in a statement. The rover went silent in 2010 and NASA officially declared it dead last year. [See the new photos of dead Mars probes]
In the MRO image, which was taken on Jan. 29, Spirit's lander platform appears as a bright feature at the bottom left, southwest of Bonneville Crater.
MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera has recorded color images of the Spirit rover itself before, but all previous photos of the lander platform were in black and white, according to NASA officials.
Near the lower left corner of this view is the three-petal lander platform (circled) that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit drove off in January 2004.
Near the lower left corner of this view is the three-petal lander platform that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit drove off in January 2004. The lander is still bright, but with a reddish color, probably due to accumulation of Martian dust. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded this view on Jan. 29, 2012, providing the first image from orbit to show Spirit's lander platform in color. CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
A NASA probe orbiting Mars has captured new photos of two dead spacecraft frozen in place at their Red Planet graves.
The photos were taken by NASA's powerful Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which has been circling the planet since 2006.
The spacecraft first spied NASA's dead Phoenix Mars Lander in the Martian arctic on Jan. 26 in a color photo that reveals the lander and its frigid surroundings as they appeared following Phoenix's second winter on the planet. The Phoenix spacecraft landed successfully on Mars in 2008.
In a separate photo, MRO also spotted the three-petal landing platform that delivered NASA's Mars rover Spirit to the surface of the Red Planet in January 2004. The platform used parachutes and airbags to bounce to a stop on Gusev crater so the Spirit rover could begin its mission.
Spirit drove off the lander platform in January 2004 and spent most of its six-year working life in a range of hills roughly two miles (3.2 kilometers) to the east, NASA officials said in a statement. The rover went silent in 2010 and NASA officially declared it dead last year. [See the new photos of dead Mars probes]
In the MRO image, which was taken on Jan. 29, Spirit's lander platform appears as a bright feature at the bottom left, southwest of Bonneville Crater.
MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera has recorded color images of the Spirit rover itself before, but all previous photos of the lander platform were in black and white, according to NASA officials.
Near the lower left corner of this view is the three-petal lander platform (circled) that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit drove off in January 2004. CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Spirit and its twin rover Opportunity were originally designed for three-month missions to look for signs of past water activity on Mars. Both rovers far outlived their warranty, however, and the missions delivered evidence that the Red Planet was once a much wetter, warmer place.
Spirit stopped driving when it became mired in sand in May 2009. Mission scientists then converted the rover into a stationary observatory, and Spirit continued to send back data from its trapped location. But, 10 months later, the rover fell silent after being unable to capture enough sunlight on its solar panels over the course of the Martian winter.
Still, Opportunity remains alive and well on Mars, and last month celebrated a remarkable eight years on the surface of the Red Planet. After a three-year trek, the intrepid rover arrived at the 14-mile-wide (22-kilometer) Endeavour Crater in August 2011. The rover recently uncovered what researchers say is the best evidence yet for liquid water on ancient Mars.
This image, taken Jan. 26, 2012, shows NASA's no-longer-active Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft after its second Martian arctic winter. The lander has the same appearance as it did after its first winter, as seen in an image from May 2010. This view is from monitoring frost patterns at the Phoenix landing site in far-northern Mars, using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Phoenix rises no more
The Phoenix Mars Lander landed in May 2008 on a mission to search and dig for evidence of water in the Vastitas Borealis plains in the Martian arctic. During its nearly six-month mission, the $475 million lander confirmed the presence of subsurface water ice and made valuable characterizations of Martian dirt.
The Phoenix mission ended in November 2008 when the spacecraft could no longer receive adequate power due to a combination of dwindling sunlight, light-obscuring dust and harsh winter temperatures.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter itself continues to have a prolific career in orbit around the Red Planet. The powerful probe began circling Mars on March 10, 2006 and is currently in an extended phase of its mission.
The orbiter continues to provide valuable insights into the planet's ancient environment and how processes such as wind, meteorite impacts and seasonal frosts are continuing to affect the surface of Mars today, NASA officials said. MRO has transmitted more data to Earth than all other interplanetary missions combined.
A European spacecraft orbiting Mars has found more revealing evidence that an ocean may have covered parts of the Red Planet billions of years ago.
The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft detected sediments on Mars' northern plains that are reminiscent of an ocean floor, in a region that has also previously been identified as the site of ancient Martian shorelines, the researchers said.
"We interpret these as sedimentary deposits, maybe ice-rich," study leader Jérémie Mouginot, of the Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG) in France and the University of California, Irvine, said in a statement. "It is a strong new indication that there was once an ocean here."
As part of its mission, Mars Express uses a radar instrument, called MARSIS, to probe beneath the Martian surface and search for liquid and solid water in the upper portions of the planet's crust.
The researchers analyzed more than two years of MARSIS data and found that the northern plains of Mars are covered in low-density material that suggests the region may have been an ancient Martian ocean. [Photos: Red Planet Views from Europe's Mars Express]
"MARSIS penetrates deep into the ground, revealing the first 60–80 meters of the planet's subsurface," said Wlodek Kofman, leader of the radar team at IPAG. "Throughout all of this depth, we see the evidence for sedimentary material and ice."
The idea of oceans on ancient Mars is hardly new, and features reminiscent of shorelines have been tentatively identified in images from various spacecraft and missions. Still, the concept remains controversial.
In fact, this new investigation comes on the heels of a separate study that found that Mars may have experienced a "super-drought," making it parched for too long for life to exist on the surface of the planet today.
New results from the MARSIS radar on Mars Express give strong evidence for a former ocean of Mars. The radar detected sediments reminiscent of an ocean floor inside previously identified, ancient shorelines on the red planet. The ocean would have covered the northern plains billions of years ago. CREDIT: ESA, C. Carreau
But, scientists working to document Mars' history have proposed two oceans: one 4 billion years ago when the planet experienced a warmer and wetter period, and one 3 billion years ago when subsurface ice melted after a large impact that created various channels that drained water into areas of lower elevation, the researchers said.
Still, the more recent ocean would have only been a temporary feature on the Martian surface, the researchers said. The water would likely have been frozen or preserved underground again, or turned into vapor and lifted gradually into the atmosphere within a million years or less, Mouginot explained.
"I don't think it could have stayed as an ocean long enough for life to form," Mouginot said in a statement.
The sediments seen by Mars Express are typically low-density grains of material that have been eroded away by water and carried off to their current location. According to the researchers, the MARSIS instrument reveals the sediments to be areas of low radar reflectivity.
In the ongoing search for life on Mars, astrobiologists will likely have to delve deeper into the Martian past, when liquid water may have existed for longer periods on the surface, the scientists said.
Still, these results are some of the best evidence yet that there were once large bodies of liquid water on the surface of Mars, the researchers said. The findings are also further proof that liquid water likely played an important role in the geological history of Mars, and the planet's own evolution.
"Previous Mars Express results about water on Mars came from the study of images and mineralogical data, as well as atmospheric measurements," Olivier Witasse, a Mars Express project scientist at the European Space Agency, said in a statement. "Now we have the view from the subsurface radar. This adds new pieces of information to the puzzle but the question remains: where did all the water go?"
Mars Express was launched in June 2003 and entered orbit around the Red Planet in December 2003. The spacecraft is scheduled to operate until at least the end of 2012.
