MLE.

Word. A friend took me to see the BBC's Planet Earth at the Southbank Centre the other day. It was accompanied by a live orchestra, so the sound was amazing, better than I thought actually.  Evidently Planet Earth is a 2006 television series produced by the BBC Natural History unit. As I don't watch television ever, I naturally had never heard of it before. It took 5 years to make and is the most expensive documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC.

I was blown away by the "hunter and hunted" part.  It is basically just a series of alligators and sharks attacking their prey, but shown in super super slow motion - which makes it absolutely majestic.

You can see the famous shark clip here.  Unfortunately, the quality is very poor, I wish I had more time to hunt down something better.

Suzan x

Hi Suzan! Came across this bit of weird science news and wanted to share it: a lake in Camargue (southern France) has recently turned a bright, shocking, blood red colour. Yeah, really! Apparently it's due to a natural phenomenon related to the high salt content of the lake. The strawberry colour of the water is caused by a salt-loving organism called "Dunaliella salina",  that produces a red pigment which absorbs sunlight to create more energy. In addition, there are icicle-like salt crystal formations that have appeared on the surface of the lake, attaching themselves to rocks and plants. These photos are by Russian photographer Sam Dobson, who just happened to be driving by in his car. Imagine just happening upon such a thing... would have felt like some kind of strange apocalypse. Just another example of how nature is so amazing and beautiful and bizarre...

E xx