The depths of the ocean are the last vast unexplored frontier on Earth. There are untold mysteries in the 95% of the ocean floor that humans have not yet seen. These strange underwater circles – nearly six feet in diameter – found off of the coast of Japan are an amazing discovery that reminds us just how much we have yet to learn about the deep blue beyond.

Underwater photographer Yoji Ookata first noticed the curiously intricate circles while diving off of the southern coast of Japan. They were so carefully constructed that they could not possibly have been the result of natural wave patterns. Were they the work of ocean aliens? The result of some undiscovered phenomenon? It turns out that the answer was really quite simple: a little fish did it for love.

After returning to the area with a film crew, Yoji discovered that the otherworldly underwater sculptures were created by a small male puffer fish. The fish swims around on the ocean floor, wiggling his fin to move the sand into geometric patterns. This peculiar activity is (like most peculiar activity) meant to impress the opposite sex. The organic mandala is an invitation to female puffer fish to come mate with the creator of the mystery circle.

Females are attracted to the carefully sculpted circles and swim along the hills and valleys until they come across the artist. The female lays her eggs in the center of the circle and the male fertilizes them, turning the sculpture into a sort of underwater nest. The intricate bumps and patterns of the sculptures aren’t merely for decoration; they protect the delicate eggs from harsh ocean currents and potential predators.

The post Crop Circles of the Sea: Diving Deep to Solve a Fishy Mystery first appeared on Gajitz.

In the post-holiday glow, almost everyone with kids starts cursing the very idea of batteries: the expensive, quick-draining little power-providers that always manage to die way sooner than they’re supposed to. But you wouldn’t be complaining if you could get your hands on this contraption. It’s called Karpen’s Pile, and some people believe it to be the closest thing to a perpetual motion machine the world has ever seen. Slightly less idealistic people call it a battery that has been producing energy continuously for more than 60 years.

Details about the device are sketchy at best and smack of a hoax at the worst. The inventor of the mysterious battery was Romanian engineer Nicolae Vasilescu-Karpen, who is said to have patented the idea in 1922 and built this working model in 1950. One of the battery’s electrodes is gold and the other is platinum; the electrolyte is sulfuric acid. And to prove that the device is indeed producing power, the battery is hooked up to a small motor that rotates a blade. The movement of the blade may very well be charging the battery with every turn – but reportedly, scientists aren’t really sure how the battery is still producing power. According to those who now study Karpen’s work, the battery breaks the second law of thermodynamics. This would be revolutionary to the entire physics world, which is why it’s hard to believe that something like this has been kept so quiet for such a long time. But perhaps we will soon get a chance to learn more about this maybe-groundbreaking battery: a Romanian technology museum wants to put it on display.

The post Has This Battery Been Going + Going + Going for 60 Years? first appeared on Gajitz.

Some of the greatest mysteries are those that surround ancient gadgets. Because of their antiquity, we may never truly know how they were built or what their purpose was. Such is the case with the Baghdad Battery, a device unearthed in Khujut Rabu, just outside of Baghdad, in 1936. It consisted of a small clay jar containing an iron rod suspended inside of  a copper cylinder. The copper cylinder was soldered shut and sealed with asphalt. Wilhelm Konig, a German archaeologist working at the National Museum of Iraq, examined the device two years after its discovery and came to the conclusion that it was an ancient battery.

Indeed, when replicas were built they were able to generate small amounts of electricity. But if the device was a battery, it would pre-date other batteries by at least a thousand years. And what, exactly, would an ancient civilization have use batteries for? For many years, experts contended that the Baghdad Battery would have been used to electroplate thin layers of gold onto silver items. That theory has fallen out of favor due to lack of evidence.

In fact, many archaeologists now believe that the Baghdad Battery had no electrical purpose at all. The usability of the ancient batteries has been proven in various scientific and entertainment arenas, but so far all that can be said is that it was possible to produce electricity with these primitive cells. Whether they were ever used for that purpose – and what, exactly, they may have powered – may never be known. Like the Antikythera Mechanism and so many other ancient gadgets, its function may be forever lost to time.

The post Battery of Mysteries: Why Did World’s First Battery Exist? first appeared on Gajitz.

Many people believe that ancient civilizations had much more advanced technology than we give them credit for. After all, the pyramids and other ancient structures do fall well outside the realm of what we once believed engineering abilities were at the time. So when an object like the Antikythera mechanism is found, it makes us question everything we know about ancient cultures.

The Antikythera mechanism was found in a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in the early 20th century. While it was originally though to be a part of the first known mechanical clock, it’s now recognized as the first known analog computer. It was probably built between 150 and 100 B.C.E., predating other similar devices by at least 1400 years. But since it’s not operational and has long ago crumbled into many pieces, we still don’t know exactly what its function was.

The exquisite manufacturing of the device suggests that it wasn’t actually the first of its kind and that much study and previous iterations went into the construction of this mechanism. We have a number of educated guesses about its purpose, and groups like the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project continue to dig into the possibilities. The above images are radiographs of fragments of the mechanism which have been preserved through the project. Maybe someday, we will be able to finally unlock the mysteries of this fascinating ancient gadget.

The post Gadgets of Gears Gone By: Ancient Greek Analog Computer first appeared on Gajitz.

(image via: Geoftheref)

Nope, it’s not a story about Michael Jackson. That’s not how we do things around here. This is all about science.

Have you ever really thought about how mirrors work? Of course, on the surface it seems like an easy question to answer: the shiny surface behind the glass reflects your image back to you. But how exactly does that image get to the shiny surface and “bounce” so that we see a reversed version of ourselves? Why doesn’t the mirror reflect us upside-down as well as laterally inverted? The simple answer is that all light is energy, traveling very rapidly. The light that hits every object can pass through, be absorbed, or reflect. When light is present – either daylight or artificial light – it bounces off of everything in its vicinity. When you stand in front of a mirror, some of the light that bounces off of you will in turn bounce to the mirror and then back to your eyes.

In this video, the late physicist Richard Feynman explains why our reflections are laterally inverted but not upside-down. The physicist was known for his playful approach to life and to work, and this video is a great example of his free spirit nature. Taken from a 1983 appearance on the BBC program “Fun to Imagine,” the segment explains the mirror question in a very broad but understandable way.

The post How Much Do You Know About the Man in the Mirror? first appeared on Gajitz.