Weird Science: Shock eggs, fish ears and sneaky snakes

I feel the need, the need for ...

Who can forget "Top Gun"? Maverick, Ice-Man, Goose ... the volleyball scene. But the coolest part of the movie was watching them fly those jets really fast. This week, the U.S. military released a photo that shows exactly how cool it is to go supersonic in an F-22. Someone with a supersonic trigger finger snapped a photo of a Raptor F-22 flying over the aircraft carrier USS Stennis. The white triangular cloud that appears in the jet's wake is called a "vapor cone, shock collar, or shock egg," according to LiveScience. Or in nerd terms, a "Prandtl–Glauert singularity."

Scientists say the singularity probably forms when water droplets get caught between "two crests of the sound waves" of the jet, creating a white cloud.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... a cloud?

Last week, there was alarm across Manhattan after strange bulbous clouds appeared in the sky. Gawker called them "mystery popcorn" clouds, others called them "mushroom aliens," while some were convinced they could see Michael Jackson's face, according to CNN's Jeanne Moos:

Earlier this month, Russia's Sarychev Peak volcano erupted, producing a gigantic shock wave that could be seen from space. Astronauts on the International Space Station snapped a breathtaking photo of the June 12 eruption. The after-effects of all that ash and sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere has been seen in the U.S. and Europe in the form of rich purple sunsets for the past two weeks.

Can you hear me now?

Oceanographers have discovered that an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in oceans is having a fishy effect on, well, fish -- their ears are getting bigger. (Yes, fish have ears). Fish ears are inside their bodies and are used primarily to make sure they're swimming upright, reports AP.

Scientists at Vanderbilt University used high-speed video to catch the tentacled snake, a water snake, perform an unusual body trick to force prey to swim directly into its mouth. The snake curves its body into a loose "J" shape and remains motionless; when a fish swims into the curve, the snake flexes the part of its body opposite its mouth. The fish senses the movement, swims in the opposite direction ... right into the snake's mouth. See video of the sneaky fake-out here.

 

- Lili Ladaga

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