Looking like something straight out of an animator’s workshop, this new species discovered by the Okeanos Explorer near the Mariana Trench lives miles underwater and emits light from its bulbous body.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was exploring the Enigma Seamount when the ROV Deep Discoverer came across this yet-undiscovered jellyfish.

Jennifer Frazer of Scientific American explains that “scientists believe this animal belongs to the genus Crossota, a group of jellies that does not have a sessile polyp stage; all phases of their lives are ocean drifters.”

Extended tentacles are, it is assumed, used to capture unwary prey attracted to the light of the species’ body. The mission that found this fresh creatures is no yet over, either, so more uncanny discoveries may be yet to come. Meanwhile, this dazzling creature is making waves all over the internet, and reminding people there are many things yet to find in the underwater frontier.

The post Mesmerizing Jellyfish Discovered in Deep Sea Looks Unreal first appeared on Gajitz.

Plastic six-pack rings are one of the most iconic pieces of environmentally-unfriendly design and technology, adding a little convenience for humans but slowly killing animals, at least until now.

A beer brewery in Florida has created a set of 3D-printed edible and biodegradable can rings that double as food for sea turtles and other susceptible species known for getting their necks trapped inside of rings. This design also represents a neat form of recycling, being constructed from byproducts of the beer-brewing process.

The plastic ring problem has been a big one for a long time. It is estimated that millions of animals have been harmed by them, in part from getting caught within the rings, but also by eating the plastic (so the old trick of cutting the rings before discarding them doesn’t do a whole lot of good). America drinks 6.3 billion gallons of beer annually, and most of the rings end up in the ocean.

Saltwater Brewery, founded in 2013, has worked to connect with local sea lovers including surfers and fishermen. The company gives “a portion of their profits to charities working to conserve our oceans and the creatures who call it home, including CCA, Surfrider, Ocean Foundation, and MOTE. Creating the 100-percent biodegradable, edible six-pack rings was the natural next step in the brewery’s sustainability mission, and the new rings have met with resounding approval in local trials. Craft brewers in other parts of the country are already asking to use the edible rings for their own beers.”

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Scientists have discovered the first example of a bio-illuminated reptile in the form of a fluorescent turtle, found while filming surrounding sea life in the Solomon Islands.

This critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle had been previously documented but never exhibiting illuminating behavior like this variety.

Marine biologist David Gruber of City University of New York found it swimming amongst sea life while taping coral and fish. Unlike bioluminescent organism, the turtle does not generate its own light but reflects blue lights as other colors.

From Colossal: “Many undersea creatures like coral, sharks, and some shrimp have shown the ability to show single green, red, or orange colors under the right lighting conditions, but according to National Geographic, no organisms have shown the ability to emit two distinct colors like the hawksbill. As seen in the video, the coloring appears not only in mottled patterns on the turtle’s shell, but even extends within the cracks of its head and feet. Gruber mentions this could be a mixture of both glowing red glowing algae attached to the turtle, but the yellow fluorescence is undoubtedly part of the animal.”

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To address to rising drought emergency in California, San Diego is building the largest desalination plant in America – while construction will cost $1 billion, it will provide drinking water to over 300,000 people in the southern part of the state.

Opening in November near San Diego, the Carlsbad Desalination Project (and project of Poseidon Water) takes advantage of ever-lowering costs to purifying the copious amounts of saltwater readily available to coastal cities.

Using a reverse-osmosis processing system, the approach still has high energy demands and may have environmental consequences as well, so while it can address the serious and pressing issue of water availability in Southern California it is not an entirely green project and should still be considered a part of a larger plan for conservation and smart usage.

Critics also note that the plant could become unnecessary if the rains return, but even without climate change factors in the mix the state has long had issues with water and this could be just the diversification it needs to weather (a lack of) future storms. 50,000,000 gallons a day is not nearly enough to supply the whole state, but could be used in conjunction with other measures to address regional lack of water.

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This small, single-seat submarine can dive to a depth of 30 feet, but the best part: its creation cost just a thousand dollars, and its inventor, Justin Beckerman, built it while still in high school – design to build: 6 months.

Should you want to build your own do-it-yourself equivalent, you will need a drainpipe, white ballast tanks, regulators and valves (obtainable from an old soda machine) and three battery systems

For fun, like this inventor has, you can add a horn, radio and ultra-bright strobe lights – it gets dark quickly as you get past a dozen or so feet down. It turns out you can get the job done for around a thousand dollars, just be sure to use lots of marine-grade waterproof glue to keep things air-tight.

A New Jersey native, Beckerman is not new to the realm of investing, having developed a car-cleaning device at age 12 and a video-watching helmet at age 14. He has also built various geeky art projects out of old pieces of technology along the way, scraps not put to more practical purposes, like, say, a submarine. Needless to say, the young inventor plans on majoring in engineering in college.

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