M.J. Rose

Here is a nature “mystery” for you – a simultaneously disturbing and cute creature. How is that even possible? The sheer weirdness of the Venezuelan poodle moth has caused images of it to go viral on the net…

(It looks like an alien to me! When I first saw a photo of it I was certain it was a puppet or a special effect for a space movie!)

Zoologist Arthur Anker’s picture of a Venezuela poodle moth has captured the curiosity of Internet onlookers.

By Alan Boyle

It’s been compared to a fluffy dog, a Pokemon character and a Power Rangers villain — but whatever it is, the Venezuelan poodle moth has captured the Internet like Mothra in a bad Japanese movie. Now it’s up to the experts to figure out exactly where this moth belongs on the tree of life.

The first thing to emphasize is that the poodle moth is no phony concoction like the jackalope, dogerpillar or chupacabra. Its cute, furry, scary look is totally in line with what’s expected for a neotropical ornamental moth…

For the complete article click here.

Was magnification technology in use in Egypt in 3300 BC.? How about telescopes in ancient Greece?…

Lost Technology of the Ancients: The Crystal Sun

Robert Temple reconstructs the wholly forgotten story of light technology in ancient civilisation. Dating back to at least 2600 BC in Old Kingdom Egypt, but unknown to archaeologists and historians, a science of optics and a sophisticated technology for the manufacture of lenses was widespread and fundamental in ancient times.

“The ancient Greek Pythagoreans of the 5th century BC believed that the sun was a gigantic crystal ball larger than the earth, which gathered the ambient light of the surrounding cosmos and refracted it to earth, acting as a giant lens.

A giant lens? In the 5th century BC? Perhaps it was because nobody until now has been willing to recognise that lenses existed in antiquity, and that the crystal sun idea was overlooked, and has never been described in any books on the history of science or philosophy. However, it appears in my latest book The Crystal Sun, the paperback of which is published by Arrow (London) in Britain and Australia on 1 February. The hardback, from Century (London), has been available in Australia since May, 2000.

What, then, is all this about ancient lenses? Surely some mistake?!…”

For the complete article click here.

More ancient lens information here.

This image via Milky way scientists.

While this beautiful planetary alignment of Mercury, Venus and Saturn is really going to occur later this year, it won’t line up over the Giza pyramids. This image is presently all over the internet – but the way the alignment is presented over the pyramids is false. The geometry is wrong. Here is what it will look like.

Isn’t it interesting how 2012 seems to be the year for all sorts of interesting celestial happenings? Makes one wonder if the Mayans were on to something? I think the pyramids are a celestial calendar – built as a language to indicate certain moments in time. But for what, who knows? Maybe just because when things happen in the sky it simply just looks amazing? The ancients were clearly interested in aesthetics (just look at those pyramids and then imagine them with their bright white casing stones intact – reflecting sunlight and moonlight as far as the eye could see).

P.S. By “ancients” I don’t mean the dynastic Egyptians – my gut tells me that these structures are way older than that.