Images of The Week, May 28 – June 1
Dan Nosowitz
at 10:08 AM Jun 4 2012

This week there’s been no shortage of amazing science and tech imagery – from a rat that regained the power of movement to shoes made from custom-bred, genetically engineered stingrays to a gorgeous shot of the Pinwheel Galaxy. More in the gallery!

  • Run Rat Run

    This rat may be running a little oddly, but remember what happened to it – this rat was previously paralysed, and a combination of drugs actually enabled it to walk again. 

  • Stingray Leather

    We’re pretty sure this isn’t possible for a few reasons – like, we haven’t sequenced the stingray’s genome, and it seems unlikely that we’d have this level of control anyway – but a company called RayFish is attempting to offer a customised shoe made of genetically modified stingray leather. You pick what you want the stingray to look like, RayFish creates said stingray, then kills it, skins it, and makes shoes out of it. Just for you! It’s weird. 

  • Portable Nuclear Detector

    This is the world’s first smartphone with a nuclear radiation detector – something of a little more concern now in Japan. It’s made by Sharp, and will be available soon. 

  • Manhattanhenge

    We were excited about Manhattanhenge – those precious two days per year when the sun is visible at the ends of the avenues of the island of Manhattan – and a somewhat cloudy day didn’t bum us out too much. Neither did it dissuade those at Animal from writing and photographing this very peculiar pagan ritual. Science and art – who would have thought?

  • Digestion Development

    This strange photo is a result of an experiment in which undergraduates Luke Evans and Josh Lake actually swallowed 35mm photographic film slides to see what the film would see. Once the negatives had passed through the body they were scanned by electron microscopes. The above image is one of the results. 

  • Pinwheel Galaxy

    The Pinwheel Galaxy, located in Ursa Major, is about 21 million light-years from Earth – but we can still enjoy its cheerfulness. The Pinwheel galaxy is about 70 per cent larger than our own, and its light left the galaxy about 21 million years ago to reach us. 

  • CarBike of the Future

    This weird little two-wheeled… car? Is it a car? Anyway, it’s the C1 prototype from Lit Motors, a fully electric, enclosed vehicle equipped with a pair of super-powerful gyros to keep it upright. 

  • Half Aged

    This guy is a truck driver, 69 years old, who’s been exposed to 25 years of direct sunlight thanks to his job – but only on the left side of his face. So we get a first-hand view at how much more aged human skin looks when bombarded with sunlight over the years. Crazy. 

  • Cheetah Cam

    National Geographic’s Criteercam has graced a few animals over the years, but this is the very first time it’s been strapped to a cheetah – this guy is an older male the NatGeo team nicknamed Wilhelm. The Crittercam will take video and photo of Wilhelm’s surroundings in western Botswana. 

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