tweedledumb

The ten-story high Scorpion’s Tail at the popular Noah’s Ark Water park in Wisconsin is essentially one giant, water-slick loop. It’s not quite vertical, though considering you’ll be hurtling through it at about 50 feet per second, that’s probably a good thing.

But Scorpion’s Tail packs an even nastier surprise for those willing to brave its sting: a freefall drop to get you started. Rather than gently pushing themselves off, riders stand in a capsule for a few seconds until the ground abruptly gives way. Suddenly, that loop makes more sense, as it’s the only thing slowing you down from the 2.5 gs of gravitational force driving you through the spray. Yikes.

[More crazy water slides here.]

roverpaul:

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freshphotons:

“ The location of actin nucleators are micropatterned onto a circle using deep UV lithography on a glass coverslip (see Reyman et al 2010). Actin polymerization is then induced by applying actin monomers, profilin, and the Arp2/3 complex. A dense and branched meshwork of filaments assemble on the circle (bright yellow) while non-branched filaments grow out of the circle and form parallel bundles. 7% of actin monomers are labelled with Alexa568, which allows the filaments to be imaged with classical epifluorescence microcopy ”

Giraffes at twilight in Etosha National Park, Nambia. [(c) Framepool]

Appeared as Bing homepage image on 25 May 2012.

(Source: reianne-raynera)